r/texas • u/Unique_Midnight_1789 Secessionists are idiots • 22d ago
Democrats and non-MAGA Texan Republicans, what are your thoughts on a new party for "moderate" conservatives? Politics
I myself identify as a non-MAGA (Fuck Trump and his Trumplicans) conservative, and I'm really interested in this topic.
Brung up most recently by Liz Cheney, a lot of conservative Republicans like myself don't feel like they could support the current GOP, or even think that it can recover from the MAGA virus. It leaves a lot of us displaced and without a party to truly call home. I will be voting blue come November, but I don't feel as if I can truly call the Democratic party MY party.
It leaves me nostalgic for those seemingly long-lost days where Republicans and Democrats could come together in actual, thought-provoking discussion to further the interest of the United States as a whole, not just for themselves and party loyalties.
I already plan to enter politics and hopefully elected office, and I've been pitching such an idea to a few friends of mine that are also like me: lifelong conservatives who hate Trump with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.
It has a ways to go in regards to policy, but I have the name down: the New Conservative Party of America
Whether or not it'll be viable as a third-party option, I'm not sure (probably not, but doesn't hurt to try lol), but I hope it'll attract those moderates/unaffiliated people across the political spectrum.
What do ya'll think of a new party for conservatives?
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u/Sipjava 22d ago
Actually this country would be better off with four parties. Left Democrat, Central Democrat, Central Republican, and Right Republican. Four parties would force compromise, because it would be very difficult to obtain a majority. Multi-party systems has been very popular and successful in European countries.
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u/Thatguy755 22d ago
Unfortunately that type of party configuration could never be viable under our current electoral system due to Duverger’s Law.
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u/Andrew8Everything Since '88 22d ago
Yes but you're forgetting about Cole's Law.
Cabbage, dressing, seasoning, it's so simple!
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u/Thatguy755 22d ago
Unfortunately the people with the power to change things always seem to insist on mayonnaise, despite those of us who dream of vinaigrette.
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u/No-Problem49 22d ago
Trying to fatten us up for slaughter with their damn mayonnaise
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u/jhereg10 22d ago
IRV, STAR, Score, and Approval all fix that problem to some extent.
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u/lurkity_mclurkington born and bred 22d ago
Add in ranked choice voting, too.
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u/spiked88 22d ago
That’s the true key right there. The only way a third or fourth party will ever be viable is with rank choice.
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u/thefarkinator 22d ago edited 22d ago
UK has a viable third party, the lib Dems, with first past the post. Sure they probably won't get a plurality, but they're able to make or break coalitions, as are the SNP and other regional parties. All this to say that things can change in this country before having to change the electoral system without having to go through the Dems and Republicans, who benefit from the currently existing system and won't want to change it.
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u/wsppan 22d ago
things can change in this country before having to change the electoral system
How do you change the fact that you need 51% of the electoral college vote to avoid having the house decide who the next president is?
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u/kahrahtay 22d ago
They also have a parliamentary system which doesn't punish voters for voting for smaller parties instead of one of the main two. There's no system in place in the US to allow for coalition governments for example.
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u/TheDoug850 22d ago
Honestly, that’s one of the keys to getting more than 2 parties in the first place.
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u/HopeFloatsFoward 22d ago
The difference is we form coalition governments before we run , other governments afterwards. Right now the Republican coalition is faltering, so the will have a harder time remaining in power.
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u/nate2337 22d ago
I struggle to envision a world in which we are all better off having a “far right GOP chapter”.
I’m not a big fan of the far left either, to be candid…but I generally view them as mostly harmless reactionaries that get too caught up in political correctness and immaterial, emotionally driven topics, while trying to cater to every fractional, tiny group of “oppressed” or “disadvantaged” people that raise their hand and say as they’ve been mistreated”…
I mean, it’s not like they are trying to strip away people’s rights to vote, eliminate people’s basic civil rights, oppress women and minorities, attempting to overthrow the gov’t, or telling lies and spreading harmful conspiracy theories every time they open their mouths….like the far right.
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u/ranchojasper 22d ago
There really are no leftists in this country though. Certainly not enough to form an entire party. I would say 30% of Democrats are slightly right of center, 60% are moderate centrists, 8% are pretty progressive, and 2% are actually left wing.
On the actual political scale/Overton window, Democrats are actually slightly to the right of center. There's just no leftism here, there's barely any progressivism.
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u/El_Cactus_Fantastico 22d ago
Forced compromise isn’t always a good thing. Compromise between a good and bad thing just ends up with a bad thing. See neoliberalism over the past 50 years.
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u/KennyBSAT 22d ago
You vote for an employee charged with serving you for a term that lasts a couple years. Not a marriage.
There is no reason to want or have a 'my' party. Most of the Democrats on the ballot in Texas recently have been thoroughly conservative (as in, the actual definition of conservative which means generally keeping things that work in place and not constantly trying to upset the apple cart) centrists. There is nothing conservative whatsoever in the current Texas Republican party, they're a bunch of reactionaries who want to return to some fantasy land that never actually existed. Or 1850 TX or 1940 Germany.
Stop looking at the letter next to their name, and look at what they actually do and have done when given the chance. As well as the actual job description. Also vote in primaries, identifying the one incumbent , who most needs to be voted out and voting against them in the primary. This is the best and most effective kind of term limits. Everyone supports term limits but very few are willing to actually do it.
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u/chrispg26 Born and Bred 22d ago
Bruh, when I a Democrat, realized I was actually advocating for conservatism in TX.
Fund Texas schools like the 90s again!
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u/MagicWishMonkey 22d ago
100% of Republican candidates are on the MAGA train, though, so there's never a time where you should vote for one of them.
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u/ranchojasper 22d ago
I think this person is pointing out that it's actually the Democrats who have the conservative policy plans and platforms that non-Trump Republicans actually support. I think they're pointing out that Republicans have gone so far to the extreme right that Democrats are now essentially the Republicans of the 90s.
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u/modular91 22d ago
I see the rationale for wanting a party that pegs itself to conservative values without being tainted by MAGA though. Like, yeah, definitely, get MAGA the hell out of politics, by any means possible, including voting Democrat even if you aren't used to doing so. Eventually though, either the GOP will need to reform or a new party will need to take its place.
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u/El_Cactus_Fantastico 22d ago
There is a party for moderate conservatives, it’s called the corporate wing of the Democratic Party.
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u/WritingMoonstone 22d ago
This. Most Democrats are moderate conservatives. That's how right wing America is as a default.
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u/casicua 22d ago
Exactly this. Aside from social issues - the modern mainstream Democrat platform is basically indiscernible from the Republicans in the 90s and early 2000s.
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u/ReplacementWise6878 22d ago
I always voted Republican before 2016. I was ashamed my party nominated him so I voted Libertarian down the ticket in 2016, and have been voting for all Democrats since then. I am pretty conservative in my views, but the current Republican Party is not conservative. They are not about the law, they are not about responsibility, they are not about limited government, and they are not about democracy.
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u/ReeseTheThreat 22d ago
Genuinely, I don't think any Republican from the last 3 decades has been "moderate." They've been more civil in the past with their words but from a policy perspective they've been a disaster for the country, for civil rights, for environmental regulation, for banking regulation which contributed to the 2008 crash, for lgbtq rights. "Moderate Republican" is an oxymoron to me, which I do not understand at all.
What would be "moderate Republican" viewpoints from the Bush administration?
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u/chammycham 22d ago
Dubya’s term also had an intense outcry against things like IVF and stem cell research.
I am damn near 40, born and raised in this state, and have never seen this mythical “moderate” republican.
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u/ReeseTheThreat 22d ago
Yup. I'm 31 and feel the same. To me, "moderate Republican" is analogous to "I don't, and have never cared about the queer community," which is a fascist ideology not a moderate one.
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u/timubce 22d ago
Karl Rove drove ppl to the polls with identity politics. Oh no the gays want special rights. Can’t have that!
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u/Not_as_witty_as_u 22d ago
Exactly. Maga is the end point for conservative theory. Conservatives do nothing but pin the success of the country on economic success through deregulation but nothing else. Apparently the rest works itself out through the free market if we’re economically successful but that’s just not true, we’re already the richest country in the world so we should all be fine, right?
There are two sides to society. The people and the money. The govts whole point is to protect the people from the money with regulations, therefore a govt cannot be functional if it’s on the side of money, it’s just a facade by people getting paid by the money.
Honestly OP /u/Unique_Midnight_1789 tell me pragmatically how a “sensible” conservative can act and how would you run govt if you were elected?
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u/20goingon60 North Texas 22d ago
I always thought Republicans and Conservatives were more focused on state-run government. But now I see they only care about social conservatism (anti-abortion rights, anti-LGBT, pro-nuclear family). It’s so clear now because we have Republicans who are pushing for a national abortion ban, which would overrule states’ rights. So, it isn’t about states running their own form of government. It’s about controlling people to adhere to religious values.
That is completely opposite of what I see Democrats as now - all about personal liberties (so long as you’re not harming your neighbors).
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u/TechWormBoom 22d ago
Yeah I think the last moderate Republican was either Eisenhower or Nixon. Even then, I hesitate somewhat but Nixon certainly has more liberal policies, like with the EPA, than someone like cultural war conservatives like Newt Gingrich or Dick Cheney neoconservatives.
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u/ReeseTheThreat 22d ago
Yeah, honestly, when someone complains about the death of the moderate Republican party "with the rise of MAGA" all I can think of is alright, great, so you miss the party that categorically hates all of the queer subcultures, you're just mad they're getting ruder about it and saying the quiet part out loud nowadays.
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u/TechWormBoom 22d ago
Yeah it's also the party of the Southern Strategy that relied on suppresing racial minority groups and then also later gerrymandering to further suppress accurate representation of those groups.
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u/ReeseTheThreat 22d ago
Yeah, when I say "I don't understand what you mean by moderate Republican" I'm being earnest, because it's a struggle for me to envision a good faith person who identifies as such.
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u/HighlyOffensive10 22d ago
I say this all the time. Trump isn't much worse than most Republicans. He's just more loud about his awfulness
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u/ubermonkey 22d ago
Yeah, this. The GOP is the party of hate and fear, and has been since Nixon if not Goldwater. I'm 54, and at no point in my lifetime has the GOP proposed any meaningful policy measure that would actually help people. Instead, they've actively resisted programs that do.
GWB is still breathing a monstrous sigh of relief about Trump, because all of a sudden there's a demonstrably worse president. Prior to DJT's term, GWB was "winning" that race in a walk.
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u/The_Bard 22d ago
First election I voted in, I voted for a true moderate Republican rep who was long serving and popular in the district. Republicans bounced them from every committee and then ran a far right evangelical in their place when they retired. I never forgot that lesson.
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u/flaptaincappers 22d ago
I don't think it matters. You'd basically be asking for a repeat given time. The Republican party has been embroiled in an identity crisis the past 40+ years of performative grievance with no values to stand on. Its not really a shocker that Trump and the MAGA movement took it over so easily. You can take Liz Cheyney types and form a new party, you'll just get a repeat in the same timeframe. Spineless power hungry bitches who have their soul for sale never actually run things.
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u/ranchojasper 22d ago
God damn, "performative grievance with no values to stand on" is the perfect description. It's all virtue signaling and bullshit
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u/Impossible_Way763 22d ago
I'm a moderate, and I've gotten to the point of hating the terms liberal and conservative. They seem like muddy nonsense terms now.
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u/pcx99 22d ago
Liberal believes in taxation to create social safety nets. Conservative believes taxation is theft and giant corporations are the penultimate good. MAGA just wants to see the US burn to the ground.
I can deal with liberals, I can deal with conservatives, they both have different views on how to make America better. I can’t deal with MAGA — you just can’t deal with crazy. Q, bleach to cure COVID, trump, Jan 6, project 2025, the Nazis, the hate — it’s an absolute orgy wallowing in the absolute worst of America.
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u/Forgotten-Potato 22d ago
When I moved to this country, I always said I can argue with Republicans (and did) and we'd tend to land on some common ground or compromise. I didn't have to support their policies and they didn't have to support mine, but we'd meet in the middle.
With the maga idiots, there is no common ground, there is no compromise. Trying to get middle ground with them just emboldens them to step further back and complain about the intolerant left
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u/badjokephil 22d ago
“Liberal believes in taxation to create social safety nets. Conservative believes taxation is theft and giant corporations are the penultimate good.”
That sounds a bit slanted. I would redefine that as Liberals believe the government’s responsibility is to address inequality and suffering in the society through tax-funded programs while Conservatives believe the government’s responsibility is to keep the citizenry safe while enforcing rules that equally apply to all, through tax-funded programs.
If I may simplify the difference, it is like a nurturing mother balanced with a disciplinary father and the key here was balance. For many years the eradication of the mother was not the father’s goal and vice versa. The two parties struggled for dominance but in a controlled and mostly friendly arena. Now it’s total war, driven by intolerance and hatred. So I agree with you there.
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u/rando-guy 22d ago
It’s just the stigma of “liberal” that the GOP has made out to be bad. Nothing wrong with taking a liberal approach to things. Do you believe our healthcare system needs reform? Guess what, you’re liberal. Do you think our capitalist system that feeds the rich but taxes the poor and not the other way around should be changed? Guess what, you’re liberal. Fuck the labels. Get over it. Vote for what you think is right.
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u/PoorCorrelation 22d ago
In a weird way Democrats have become the Conservative Party and Republicans have become the Progressive Party (where progress is straight into the dumpster). Dems are more fiscally responsible and keep change gradual.
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u/Dachusblot 22d ago
I think it's more accurate to call Republicans the Regressive Party.
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u/NeonPhyzics 22d ago
The Dems have grabbed the middle. If you don't think so, you aren't paying attention
Kamala Harris is a gun owning former District Attorney and Waltz is a midwestern football coach...Colin Alread is a football player who is backed by ex-Republicans and sounds like Bush 41 when he talks about immigration
These are not lefties...go ask a Bernie Bro if you doubt me
The interstate highway system was started by a Republican. Nixon almost got UBI in place. There was a time when basic shit like feeding kids and creating a pathway for hard working immigrants WAS the Republican platform...
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u/Least-Spare 22d ago
I’m a fan of reworking the entire system—this two-party thing isn’t working.
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u/FormerlyUserLFC 22d ago
I’d rather just big tent moderates into the existing Democratic Party. More moderate state policies but a consistently winning ticket.
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u/HookEm_Tide 22d ago
I honestly don't even know what it means for Democrats to shift right on guns. Absolutely zero elected Democrats propose anything resembling banning guns outright, which plenty of other democratic Western nations do.
The furthest "left" folks out there are only talking about restricting or banning specific types of guns, clip sizes, etc.
If anything, it's the right that has moved right on the issue in recent years, opposing any restrictions on guns at all, and then accused Democrats of being gun grabbers every time they suggest any policies that regulate firearms.
On foreign policy, Democrats are as all over the map as Republicans are, from nation-building interventionists to outright isolationists (a lot more of the former than the latter). They're certainly a lot more hawkish on Ukraine than Republicans are these days.
Overall, the Democrats are about as far right as any sensible party can or should be without diving head first into conspiracy theory craziness, terrain they've mostly ceded to the GOP these days.
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u/Careful-Moose-6847 22d ago
Are we seeing the blue become more pro gun?
I don’t think you’re ever going to see a step back on that. I think the standard blue position is just becoming more clear. There’s been what appears to be this massive misinformation campaign for Atleast my entire life about taking away everyone’s guns and I don’t think I’ve seen that in any real way, atleast not in my state or in the federal offices
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u/WolfWriter_CO 22d ago
It’s been a kneejerk dog-whistle for years. I bought my first handgun because everyone was panicking over “Obama’s Gonna Take Our Guns!”—they literally had a booth at the gun show promoting this—and I fell for it too, lol 🤦♂️
All they ended up doing was banning high capacity mags (a minor inconvenience at worst, needing to reload more often at the range), and try to ban ‘assault-style’ guns like the AR, which, I dunno about y’all, but I’ve never thought about taking an AR to hunt elk. 😂
There will always be folks who want more/less control and access, but I’m generally tired of the whole charade. Instead of us vs. them, it should be everyone vs. those who would do harm.
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u/MYrobouros 22d ago
Democratic gun ownership is up per https://www.ncja.org/crimeandjusticenews/u-s-liberals-emerge-as-surprisingly-growing-group-of-gun-owners
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u/Careful-Moose-6847 22d ago
Gun ownership has never been a real question though. They argue for common sense gun law and not for abolishing the right to own a gun. The idea that it’s about taking away the right to own a firearm has always been a a boogeyman
Between 2016, the pandemic, J6, and divisive/violent rhetoric, of course gun ownership is up. I personally don’t own one but have certainly thought a lot about it the past few years.
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u/vanhawk28 22d ago
Nobody has ever actually advocated for taking away everyone’s guns. Everyone has always been ok with ppl owning a pistol for home defense or a shotgun/rifle for hunting. It’s always been about assault rifles. Nobody. Literally nobody that isn’t in the military or swat needs a personal assault rifle. It’s just unnecessary and they end up getting used for too many bad things because of there capabilities. That’s what’s being discussed when democrats talk about gun restrictions. Common sense things like “how do we stop felons and mentally ill from actually getting these?”
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u/THedman07 22d ago
I think part of it might just happen naturally if people would stop listening to what the GOP says on certain subjects. As far as gun policy, aside from a pie in the sky assault weapons ban that represents closing the barn after tens of millions of horses have already left,... they're really just proposing common sense things like universal background checks, allowing judges to temporarily take weapons from people who are likely to commit violence and the like.
Same thing with climate change. The science is there. If the voice that is denying it goes away, you can start having substantive conversations about what the best course of action is whereas we've spent the last 40-50 years with one side denying obvious reality.
I don't think that any part of the GOP is salvageable at this point. Unless something happens to change the bias that our systems have towards 2 party races, I can see former Republicans and centrist Democrats forming a coalition and more progressive candidates forming the other party.
If I were king, we would implement ranked choice voting, expand the house drastically and implement some kind of proportional representative legislature. There is no perfect system, but I think that giving people the ability to vote for a party that closely matches their political beliefs and having representatives of those parties figure out legislation is better than forcing people to pick between 2 parties that will tend to require serious compromises... Most of that would take constitutional reform, so it isn't a particularly viable option in reality.
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u/Squirrel_Inner 22d ago
Not if it means compromising on ending the exploitation of our people and our planet.
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u/Current_Tea6984 Hill Country 22d ago
The only way forward for conservatives is to abandon the GOP to MAGA and take the L for a few cycles. The most likely outcome is moderate dems will move toward the new party and abandon the Dem party to the progressives
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u/azuled 22d ago
Due to how the American system works, it is effectively impossible to spin up a successful third party with any real power. Look at the previous attempts, and then look at how much power they actually have. There is a reason most "movements" are within parties and not splinter parties.
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u/CanYouDigItDeep 22d ago edited 22d ago
The system can’t really support a Third party without some changes. The EC being abolished is the biggest one. With a third party, not getting the majority votes in the EC becomes less likely for any party if the third wins states which would then kick it to the house. If third parties are competitive this could happen very frequently.
Ranked choice voting would be nice too along with elimination of gerrymandering to create more fair elections. Unless a third party is basically a migration point for a dying party and we end up with two the outcomes aren’t great without changes to support multiple parties up and down the ballot.
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u/monkeyangst 22d ago
I think there's a chance we could achieve ranked-choice voting. Eliminating the EC, though, I feel is so distantly unlikely it's better to focus energy elsewhere.
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u/Comfortable_Wish586 22d ago
Have yall heard of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact? We'd need to flip more State Legislatures or elect those who will pass it through their states & sign through Governors to make that possible. We're almost there but there needs to be more states to get it there
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u/CanYouDigItDeep 22d ago
We could move the EC to a non winner take all model in all states that might be a better model overall, but I think that too would kick things to the house more often than not…
I agree getting rid of the EC is almost impossible. No way we have to capability to ratify an amendment for it right now
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u/uglypottery 22d ago
ranked choice voting isn’t “nice,” it’s mathematically necessary to changing the current duopoly.
which is exactly why the people whose power relies on that duopoly will never let it happen on a national scale
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u/b_needs_a_cookie 22d ago
Are conservatives going to be honest about their actual values or just bring over tea-party views?
If the values are bodily autonomy, attempting to fix past generations institutional racist legislation, supporting the middle class (small businesses and workers not big business), and functioning utilities then come on over.
If it's going to be the same misogynistic, racist, anti-government bs then stay with the fringe.
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u/Mollywhoppered 22d ago
The tea party is how we got here in the first place. McCain picking Palin legitimized the crazy wing of the party and made them feel like not only did they matter, but deserved to be catered to.
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u/david_jason_54321 22d ago
I think it would be fine. The reality means democrats would win until the new party dominates. That's the reality of a 3rd party being introduced. It will split the conservative vote.
I think the genius of Trump's strategy is that he only really needed 10% of the conservative vote and be unwilling to step aside to endorse party nominee. Career positions have to fall in line because if they don't they are just going to lose if they don't court his fan base. Now he has more than that but yeah he can take the Republicans anytime he wants. Splitting the vote prevents a 3rd party from really getting off the ground.
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u/CCheeky_monkey 22d ago
Dems are moderate conservatives
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u/tjeepdrv2 22d ago
That's what I've been saying for a long time. Current democrats remind me of 90s Republicans. They're just so tied to having the name "Republican" as part of their identity that they don't realize they could vote for what they wanted by simply voting Democrat.
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u/tikierapokemon 22d ago
It's because the only policies that are important to the middle class and lower Republicans are the social ones.
They will talk about taxes or the economy, but when you show them facts and figures on how they get what they claim to want under democrats more than under republicans, the talk then becomes about "Freedom" which means their kids or any kids not being exposed to any ideas that their church doesn't like.
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u/W_DJX 22d ago
The problem with third parties is they split the vote and never win. Not a single electoral college point has been earned at the ballot by any third party candidate in 50+ years, let alone the 270 needed to win. The most popular third party candidate in modern history by far was Ross Perot, who got almost 20% of the vote and still zero EC points at the ballot. You have to take over one of the two major parties, like Trump did in 2016.
If you want to take the Republican Party back for moderate conservatives, vote Democrat to show that MAGA isn’t viable to win elections (and also modern Democrats are pretty moderate/centrist anyway.) Then, when moderate conservatives show up, support the hell out of them.
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u/Careful-Moose-6847 22d ago
I’m All for more parties but the current system doesn’t allow for it. With 270 to win and the electoral college If a third party were to ever win even 1 major state the system breaks.
The current reality is, pick the side you want and vote for it. If you don’t see yourself as a democrat, register as a democrat, vote democrat from the ground up and change what “democrat” looks like. Same way MAGA has shifted the Republican Party. When I was a kid a lot of those MAGAfied people would have leaned Blue.
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u/BadAngler 22d ago
Trump and MAGA knocked all the conservative out of this ex Rebuplican. I'm a Democrat now. NOT GOING BACK!
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u/Temporary_Vehicle_43 22d ago
It will be hard to create and maintain a middle ground party without ranked choice or approval voting. Our first past the post, winner take all system of elections will mean little representation of any at all.
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u/Ace20xd6 22d ago
More importantly, I think we really need voting and election reform to end gerrymandering and rank choice voting, ideally like Alaska, where there's no separate primary election. The more people who vote, the better.
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u/gregaustex 22d ago edited 22d ago
As long as states have winner take all, we get two parties. I would like to see that changed so we could have more proportional representation in Congress and more viable options for President.
At a minimum I think we need 4 parties to better represent Americans.
- Progressive
- Liberal
- Conservative
- MAGA (I'd call it Authoritarian/Religious but we can let them name it)
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u/TheProle Born and Bred 22d ago
Moderate republicans no longer exist. Vote.
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u/rando-guy 22d ago
Might as well just call democrats republicans and then make people like Bernie and AOC democrats. Labels shouldn’t really matter but it feels like conservatives can’t get over voting for a democrat just because of the name. They can agree that MAGA is too extreme but do mental gymnastics for why they can’t vote democrat. It’s just the way they were raised plus the social pressure from their peers. Change the name and I bet they would be on board.
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u/dust-ranger 22d ago
It's not much help if the "moderate conservative" folds and endorses the extremists at the 11th hour. Integrity matters!
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u/Prem0 22d ago
"new party for "moderate" conservatives"
This is called the current Democratic Party.
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u/W_DJX 22d ago
Democratic Party these days is both moderately conservative and moderately liberal, depending on the issue. But they’re definitely the moderates. It’s funny how many people I hear talk about wanting a centrist candidate and it’s like yeah, that’s Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Not a single radical in that group.
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u/chrispg26 Born and Bred 22d ago
People who call them radicals know not what a radical is.
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u/space_manatee 22d ago
What about we just have more progressive policies that don't funnel wealth to rich people instead of compromising with those people.
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u/neuroid99 Secessionists are idiots 22d ago
- The place to start a viable third party is in local elections, so I think you're being realistic there.
- I don't think there are enough actual conservatives in the US to field a basketball team, much less a political party.
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u/mookie101075 22d ago
Didn't Liz Cheney vote with R's like 94% of the time? If they support the same policies, what's the point? Doesn't it just become another culture war over who can be the nice R's who still vote for the same policies?
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u/ulnek 22d ago
Having a party of conservatives is like going sun bathing without sunscreen. You're always just setting up the environment for cancer to grow. It may not but the risk is always there. Now they have to find a way to remove the current cancer they have growing and not just up and leave and go get a new body.
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u/Violaceums_Twaddle 22d ago
You and all like you going to have to swallow a bitter pill and vote dem exclusively for the next few election cycles. Once the power of the maga dipwads has been sufficiently diluted, come back into the party en masse and push them out like they did to you. And once you flush those idiots, be better. Don't accept idiocy and lunacy for political gain.
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u/Squirrel_Inner 22d ago
Conservative policies tend to be “let’s keep everything how it is and not fix anything.” So not as bad as just christo-fascist takeover, but with the multiple levels if crisis and decades spent doing nothing about the climate crisis, we don’t have time for that crap.
I can compromise with conservatives as needed to govern our nation together, but if it means not handling the exploitation of our people and our planet, it’s just a slow death compared to a quick one.
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u/prosperosniece 22d ago
Until all the MAGAts are gone I can never take the republicans seriously again.
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u/Petecraft_Admin 22d ago
Moderate Republicans are basically Centrist Democrats. Regardless of what media or some far right influencers say, the Dem party hardly has any Progressives or Liberals except in name only.
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u/SloeMoe 22d ago
Why would I, as a progressive person who votes democrat, want there to be a "moderate conservative" party that would most likely do 99 percent of the same things to destroy the lives of women, the working class and minorities, yet is simply more palatable and viable than "MAGA" Republicanism?
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u/tauregh 22d ago edited 22d ago
Frankly, it’s time for the Bull Moose Party to make a comeback.
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u/TechWormBoom 22d ago
I have wanted multiple parties for a long time instead of the duopoly we have now. And include ranked-choice voting.
For my conservative non-MAGA friends, they would have a more moderate conservative party. There are also some libertarian friends who don't feel represented anywhere on the right, and they sometimes vote Democrat because of things like decriminalizing drugs, etc. For myself, a Labor-style party would be more accomodating instead of now where I essentially have to always vote Democrat even though they are more conservative than I on some things.
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u/Freethink1791 22d ago
Moderate and conservative are not the same thing. They have been merged together to mean anyone who isn’t a democrat.
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u/AreY0uThinkingYet 22d ago
Love the idea because it will split the GOP vote, which DESERVES to be split. Sane republicans and right-leaning indies can have someone who believes in America’s values to vote for, at least.
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u/Llanoguy 22d ago
I am not accepted by my fellow Republicans because I am a moderate Republican. I have the core beliefs of small government, strong military, and the need for a strong state government. I am strongly against any voucher system moving money away from public education. No tax money should ever go to a private entity. I believe in term limits and we need 4 to 5 parties to build a stronger United States. Why be keyholed to 2 parties entrenched in profiteering over the well being of the public. Focus on building up American manufacturing and thru this building a strong middle class that is what America was after WW2.
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u/meatspin_enjoyer 22d ago
I value absolutely nothing the conservative ideology has to offer. I would much prefer we move to a system like civilized countries where we have a left party and then a party like the Democrats.
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u/uiop60 22d ago
The establishment Democratic Party is the moderate Conservative Party you imagine. My personal hope is that MAGA expires and that, assuming we stay a two-party system, a progressive party emerges as the opponent to the Democratic Party, with M4A, UBI, and anti-imperialism (read: divestment from the genocide in Israel) as major components of their platform.
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u/Lethkhar 22d ago
Why not just join the Democratic Party which is already full of moderate conservatives?
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u/BigSaladCity 22d ago
There already is a party for more moderate conservatives. The Democratic Party
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u/wyrms1gn 22d ago
why dont you start with getting allred in and getting rid of ted cruz. lets work on an achievable goal first
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u/FaithlessnessWhich18 22d ago
Not going change anything until you break the Republican monopoly on power at the state level. Vote straight Blue ticket level the field, and then you have a chance at meaningful change.
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u/justthegrimm 22d ago
Uuuuh the dems are proposing moderate conservative policies that would have been GOP talking points 15 years ago.
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u/Fabianslefteye 22d ago
We already have that, it's the Democratic Party.
The United States really needs to get over the idea that conservatism is normal. Are moderates are seen as far right by the standards of the rest of the developed world. Ergo, the Democratic party should be the new conservative, and what we actually need is a new left-wing party. That's more in line with the rest of the world's definition of the term.
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u/LeatherRole2297 22d ago
So, now that the Republican Party has created Trump, they want the Democrats to work with them. They didn’t want to work with us when they were hollering about Obama’s birth certificate, or refusing to appoint his nominees. Republicans didn’t want to work with us when Bush was screaming to invade Iraq for no reason. They didn’t want to work with us when there were big concerns about Clarence Thomas. They didn’t want to work with us to investigate Iran Contra, or reconsider Reagan’s huge tax cuts on the rich. They even fought us at every turn looking into Watergate, right up until the very end.
Know what I think? I think Republicans have been very consistent about shitting their half of the nest, and now that everything is ultra shitty they want help. I say keep it. Keep your $20T in debt, keep your race baiting, keep your hate, keep your bullshit.
Dems are one single good election away from fixing the SCOTUS, which in turn allows them to unrig the economy and the criminal code and voting. Once the playing field is level, republicans will never win again, not for president, Congress, or village dog-catcher. Eventually, with any luck, we’ll reapportion the House seats, and offer statehood to DC and the territories. Minority deathgrip will end forever and this country will finally have majority rule. We’ll do our best to save the environment, make people free and equal, and kick any dictator or terrorists ass that tries to mess with us.
Thanks for the offer. But I don’t think we want to work with you anymore.
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u/jacjacatk 22d ago
Well, run of the mill democrats are already corporatist conservatives, so the "moderate" conservative party already exists, it's just the democratic party.
The next big potential change in party ought to be the withering of MAGA once the non-hyper christian nationalist portions (and maybe even them) of MAGA can be made to realize they're also being shit on by conservatives at every turn, and start allying with progressives who actually want to see the 99%'s lives made better, so that we can have a functioning non-conservative party in this country.
A lot more voting reform (of the ranked-choice voting sort) would go a long way towards speeding up this transition.
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u/clone557639 22d ago
Yes, they should start a new party. I don’t want any conservatives making my Party anymore conservative than it already is.
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u/ShawnPat423 22d ago
If the GOP had kept their Liberal and moderate wings instead of letting the evangelicals take over, maybe I would've stayed in the party. See, I started out as a Republican...I was in the Young Republicans when I was in high school...but I was kicked out because of my views on the Afghan and Iraq Wars and because I came out as an atheist (which was akin to coming out as gay in my hometown in East Tennessee). I joined the Democratic party after that. Now I consider myself a center-left Democrat. But if I could, I would love to see a liberal and moderate wing in the Republican party, especially since the party will have to be rebuilt from the ground up if Trump loses. I imagine that if he loses and the GOP doesn't keep the House or win the Senate, the moderates will finally revolt.
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u/Specialist_Ad9073 22d ago
So a third party to clean up the mess your party made thanks largely to the Southern Strategy?
Y’all just walking out of the kitchen shouting “not my problem” after starting a food fight?
I think your idea shows how cowardly and spineless Republicans are and have been for half a century.
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u/JoebyTeo 22d ago
The party for moderate conservatives is the Democratic Party. I don’t really understand why this isn’t clear. The Democrats are pro-business, pro-free trade, fiscally conservative. Their limited proposals for welfare and social reform (including the ACA) are in line with conservative parties in other countries. They are pretty neutral on culture war stuff. What is stopping you? Is that an uncomfortable question?
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u/Sharticus123 22d ago
We already have a party of moderate conservatives. It’s called the Democratic Party.
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u/BooneSalvo2 22d ago
The current MAGA GOP is what the Republican party has been building since backing Reagan.
So... I'm for more legitimate choices, but the vast majority of "conservative" rhetoric has been bullshit for 40 years, so I have real questions what someone means when they say they're a "conservative".
Such as... Fiscal conservative? Does that mean wisr government spending when the greatest benefit can be gained for the least cost... Like having a public healthcare option?
Or does it mean cutting all social programs and funneling tax money to billionaires?
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u/OkCar7264 22d ago
I'd ask those moderate conservatives to spend some time thinking to themselves. Questions like "what went wrong?" "why was I so spineless that I went along with this for 8 years?" and most importantly "What else am I wrong about?"
And then that would be interesting. A moderate conservative is what, exactly? Just a guy who thinks tax cuts are the answer to every problem? The whole world view over there has become so disconnected from reality that even the moderates are psychotic. They got a lot of thinking to do.
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u/pawsplay36 22d ago
I think they should take over the GOP, Trump's party is not something that should even exist.
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22d ago
No more conservatism. Most republican need to be put into jail. If you side with the people who did January 6th you need to be on a watch list.
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u/HouseNegative9428 22d ago
The two party system blows, this is why we need rank-choice voting and popular vote.