The Conservative Crack-Up

Sooner or later, a coalition including everyone from the religious right to big business to libertarians had to collapse. Richard Fineman believes the conservative crack-up is occuring now.

The neocons still believe that their position on Iraq was right but “was botched by a Bush team that has turned out to be incompetent, crony-filled, corrupt, unimaginative and weak over a wide range of issues.”

The flight of the neocons — just read a recent Weekly Standard to see what I am talking about — is one of only many indications that the long-predicted “conservative crackup” is at hand.

The “movement” – that began 50 years ago with the founding of Bill Buckley’s National Review; that had its coming of age in the Reagan Years; that reached its zenith with Bush’s victory in 2000 — is falling apart at the seams.

Ultimately the only group the Republicans really serve is the ultra-wealthy. While they might hide it behind rhetoric, their top priorities are to cut taxes on the ultra-wealthy while using government programs to enrich them. Along the way, they are willing to undermine our national security with a senseless war, or trash the Constitution to pander to the religious right, if it means picking up more votes.