by Joseph Robertson

Created on: November 16, 2008   Last Updated: November 17, 2008

The "conservative movement" in America is struggling to understand its most important setback in a generation, in part because its worldview takes for granted that what has happened simply cannot be real. In today's New York Times, David Brooks writes about the growing rift between the conservative "Traditionalists" and the "Reformers". He suggests the traditionalists, who say their losses come from not clinging firmly enough to the tax-cutting, slash government, immigration-crackdown agenda, will prevail in coming years, due to institutional entrenchment. This may be, but it will be disastrous for the conservative cause and the Republican party, generally.

It has been theorized that coming decades will see a sea change in electoral politics, with one or both of the current "major parties" losing dominance and giving ground to third parties with more specific, pro-active agendas. The Green party could steal ground from the Democrats, as it did in 2000, on a more permanent basis, if the party is not watchful, but could also gain middle ground from the Republicans. And the Libertarian party is a constant threat to the Republican party's Constitutional-conservative standing.

The Green party has done a great deal to educate the Democrats, in reforming party structure and greening their political agenda: the Democratic party has benefited from a Green-style decentralized organization, grass-roots online recruiting, and working sustainability into its economic and social platforms. A new firmness rooted in principled liberalism has allowed the Democrats to simultaneously preach the need for progressive reforms, while working to reach them from the political center.

This has overwhelmed the Republican party's efforts to expand what Tom DeLay hoped would be a "permanent majority". Now, we have a Republican party that is weaker and more fractious than at any time since the Watergate era. Hard-line conservative "traditionalists", as David Brooks calls them, refuse to accept that their relentless and too-often hypocritical pursuit of a theoretical conservative Utopia has brought this misfortune to their party.

There is an astounding amount of wishful thinking taking place, among conservative Republicans who now argue that the party needs to reject economic stimulus, reject aiding the middle class, propose massive new unaffordable tax cuts for big business, build a wall on the Mexican border, and prosecute illegal immigrants. It is "wishful thinking", because the country views

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