Scarborough: Republicans Must Move Past Current Definition of 'Conservative'

Joe Scarborough quote from Breitbart:

Let’s face it. American conservatism is now associated with wasteful spending, military adventurism and ideological conformity.

Scarborough is right…to a point. The Republican Party has been defined by the wasteful spending behavior of the last several congress and senate sessions. Not only that, but the party — notice I am not saying “we” — has been wrongfully defined by the media and the Democrats, but I repeat myself.

Scarborough’s comments on “military adventurism” are dead wrong. Fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban is not military adventurism.

As for idealogical conformity, he might have a possible point. The Republicans need to adopt conservatism. That means adherence to the original intent of the constitution, low taxes, cuts in wasteful spending, and creating a good environment for business. 

The party should be conservative on social issues, but should not turn it into a quasi-church organization. It’s a political party, not an evagelical Christian movement. People of other faiths or no faith at all ought to be welcomed into the party. People who may disagree on abortion or gay marriage should be welcomed in. That does not mean the party should water itself down on the issues, just not intentionally exclude those who may disagree on one or more issues.

Democrats and the media are suggesting that the Republicans need to become a Democrat-Lite party. As the old joke goes, that means if the Democrats introduce a bill to burn down the Library of Congress, the Republicans introduce their own bill to phase it in over three years.

Democrat-Lite is not the way to go if the party wants to win future elections. Adopting a platform of fiscal sanity and social conservatism — adhering to it — will bring the party back into power.