The caucus chaos is a clear sign that the Conscious Conservative movement continues to grow. There are Neoconservatives, and President Bush tried to establish a Compassionate Conservative label, but it is the Conscious Conservatives who may represent the new power in the Republican Party.
Conscious Conservatives are those conservatives, mainly Republican, who have become compelled by the events of the past seven years to start putting some distance between themselves and George W. Bush as their political chief executive. They and he may still share some core ideologies and philosophies, but they have just become too conscious of Iraq and Katrina, cronies doing a heck of a job, executive power grabs, the word “terrorism” as a political tool, dangerous detainee policies, national surveillance practices and end runs on the Constitution. Unconscious Conservatives have witnessed these same things, and some of them may be nervous about Bush, but they wouldn’t give up his guarantees to pro-life, guns, and James Dobson, if Bush declared Congress unconstitutional and locked out the Supreme Court.
The irony is, they can have those things, and a competent chief executive, too, when the nation’s electorate becomes conscious-based, a consciousness that takes into account globalization, and terrorism, and the price of being lured into asymmetric warfare against the wrong enemy. No president may have been available, who could measure up to the demands on this country after 9/11, but President Bush’s record would not be too difficult to top. If consciousness, and not political railroading, had been a feature of the 2000 conventions and election, the nation may still have had a pro-life, evangelical Republican president, whose record today almost certainly would have to be preferable to that of George W. Bush.
Conscious Conservatives may be starting to realize something else. The administration points out, almost every day, that the nation has not been attacked by terrorists since 9/11. The emerging reality is that the 9/11 attack hasn’t ended yet. It was just the starting point, the place in Manhattan where the enemy plunged a syringe into the nation, injecting us with a fear-based virus that set into motion erosive events that are occurring still, unchecked. It is the source of much of the emotion in the immigration issue. Another is due process for detainees, and the law, signed in Fall, 2006, by President Bush, that deprives some people of the habeas corpus rule that is a cornerstone of United States jurisprudence.
Some of this new cadre of Conscious Conservatives enjoy high position. Every time you see a Republican office-holder trying to distance him- or herself from the president, you are looking at a Conscious Conservative. Their awareness became apparent before the November, 2006, elections, and will be a driving feature of the 2008 election.
The movement has had the effect of expanding the political middle. Not only Dubya-dubious Republicans, but independents and moderate Democrats have found Conscious Conservative appealing. I feel that I am one of those. I am pro-choice, but I am also pro-state’s rights, pro-less government, pro-taxes, as long as they are fair, pro-Constitution, pro-separation of powers, pro-business, pro-mom, pro-apple pie, pro-flag, a veteran, and pro-faith. If a person is pro-faith, how can he also be pro-choice? It is difficult, yes, but so is the woman’s position, and the decision she must make. Only she should have the right to make it.
Who would our candidate be? What a question that has become. Observers are astounded by this presidential campaign, say they have never seen another one like it. and it is only January. Hillary, Barack, Mitt, Mike and John have all won caucuses, and the two sides, in a stage change during one debate, even met onstage for some general back-slapping in the apparent notion that, whoever wins, things will be better. Who are these voters out there, creating this chaos? Democrats, Republicans, independents, evangelicals, united by the force of consciousness in unprecedented numbers.
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