The fight for Republican "soul."

This may seem like a strange concept. Who knew the Republicans even had a soul? But as the Obama administration is showing greater ineptitude and a political death wish than even I believed, there now seems to be a scramble to define the direction of the Republican party; the party of the right.

Libertarians have a big voice in the baby giant known as the Internet. They also are active politically in the “moderate middle” as they define it. They are now attempting to establish the rules of conduct for that part of the political sphere defined right now – not as the Republican party, but- primarily as the opposition to Obama.

As an example is a blogger who I have read with interest: Eric Scheie at Classical Values. It’s an interesting commentary and an example of it’s type.

Should I just ignore it in the hope that it goes away?
My biggest problem right now is that I can't stand Obama, but that has not translated into loving conservatism.

Now, while that equation might not seem terribly problematic in itself, and it might even constitute remarking the obvious, there's an added dimension.

While I may be wrong about this, it seems to me that conservatism is changing. Each day, it seems to be trying to become more, um, assertive. More muscular, if you will. That may be good and it may be bad, but for those of us who don't like conservatism, the more muscular it becomes, the harder it is to ignore.

Has conservatism changed? Is it the kind of change that "change" produced?

I don't have to go along with Obama's form of change, I don't see any reason why I should have to go along with conservatism's form of change. If I don't like left wing Alinskyism, why should I like right wing Alinskyism? If I don't like left wing ends-justify-the-means, by-any-means-necessary dishonesty, why should I like right wing ends-justify-the-means, by-any-means-necessary dishonesty? If I don't like left wing identity politics, why should I like right wing identity politics?

Yes, this is getting repetitive. Change is tedious.

I should try harder to ignore it in the hope that it goes away.

My response:

What is it about social conservatism that scares the shit out of some people? Most of the time you seem to be rational individuals but touch on “social conservatism” (a code word for the Christian Right) and rationality flies out the window. Does a minute for prayer in school at the start of the day or a mention of Christ by a Christian valedictorian threaten your atheism? Most of the 230 some years of this nation were years in which “blue laws” were common and these are referred to by Libertarians as “the good old days.” No, I don’t think there will be local laws forcing businesses to shut down on Sunday, although that might be a good idea. It has not hurt Chick-fil-A. No one this side of Islamic Jihad wants to establish a theocracy, but mention the Christian Right and we have some Libertarian or hard Leftist getting the vapors about a Pat Robertson dictatorship or a raving band of Presbyterians slaying infidels in the streets. God almighty, bestselling books have been written about this crap and frankly, it’s as obnoxious as the Truthers.

You may not have the morals or the lifestyle beliefs of the vast majority of religious people in this country, but this I know: we are no longer willing to sit in the back of the bus and told to shut up and vote right by people who seem to believe they have moved beyond our “outdated morality.” The more skeletons come out of the powerbrokers closest, the more videos we see of the morality of ACORN, the more we hear about “rape-rape,” the more we see the make-it-up-as-we-go-along personal lives of the people running this country, the more you will find people on my side of the fence wanting a say in who gets elected.

If this makes you uncomfortable, my sincere regrets because we would like you along. But we’ve seen what going along to get along has brought us to. The crisis the country is facing is more a crisis of the spirit than one of materialism. Until you understand that, you don’t understand the problem.

I don't think I am misinterpreting this comment. Note that he says

"but for those of us who don't like conservatism, the more muscular it becomes, the harder it is to ignore."

There can be no question about his position, he wants an anti-Obama party that is NOT conservative. There are a lot of those out there. The Republicans ran one last year as their Presidential candidate. That did not work out so well, so Scheie wants to do it again. I believe we are treading on the hem of insanity by people who like to think of themselves as well balanced.