Op-Ed: Conservative Movement Is Fragmented as McCain Enters General Election Campaign

As John McCain enters the Summer season trying to unite the Republican Party, conservatives aren't on the same page with themselves.

John McCain shouldn't have a problem with American conservatives. He has an 82 percent lifetime rating from The American Conservative Union. However, the conservative movement in America is at a crossroads. During the 1970's, conservatives began building great lobbying organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, the National Conservative Political Action Committee, the Conservative Caucus, the Free Congress Foundation, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family and the Moral Majority. They had a united base of fiscal and social people who were committed to defeating Communism by expanding our nation's military capacity; restoring traditional morality and also by cutting taxes and regulations for businesses. The main problem with McCain is his contradictions. It's synonymous with the conservative movement in America. For example, McCain's support for nation building in Iraq, Bush's tax cuts and a huge bureaucracy with the Department of Homeland Security is the polar opposite of his rhetorical support for limited government, fiscal austerity and states' rights. ''His support for the president's program of domestic surveillance and stringent versions of the Patriot Act contradict his commitment to individual freedom.'' Senator McCain has tried to appease social conservatives by saying that he gets the message that they want the border enforced first. However, he will always be remembered as the co-author, along with Massachusetts liberal lion Ted Kennedy, of comprehensive immigration reform which, ultimately, gives a path to citizenship to the millions of illegal aliens who have already entered our country. This issue is a kind of trade-off for McCain because he does receive strong business support for his stance. Businesses want the continual flow of cheap immigrant labor. He voted against a federal ban on gay marriage stating that this interferes with states' rights but later said that he would sign the bill into law if were elected president. Even if McCain wins the presidency, he would probably be working with a strengthened Democratic Congress and likely would be a sort of transitional figure to the next great conservative leader of the future. The future of American conservatism is a battle between the ideas of the following men: Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. ''Tom Tancredo offers an explicitly authoritarian, nationalistic brand of conservatism that would seek to cleanse the nation of foreign influences, expand the police powers of government and wage unremitting war against Islam.'' Ron Paul has a more libertarian flavor in which he would remove American forces from Iraq and not us get involved in future foreign entanglements except as a last resort. He promises to ax the federal income tax and drastically cut government spending. Paul wants to repeal the Patriot Act and end the war on drugs. Mitt Romney would be a fiscal conservative committed to the interests of corporate America. He would be a sort of ''banker's'' conservative. Conservatives are failing because the war in Iraq is a misguided folly based on lies. Prior to neoconservatives infecting the Republican Party with their nation-building and war mongering ideas, paleoconservatives only believed that the United States should go to war with another country as a last resort not a first resort. Free trade policies have failed this country making Wall Street rich and devastating many Main Streets in America. Open immigration contributed to 09-11-01 and rewards lawbreakers. Deregulation of the financial services sector has led to the credit and housing crises. No Child Left Behind creates federal mandates without proper funding. Conservatives have always opposed federal meddling in education policy. In short, conservatives are in political trouble because both Bushes were never true conservatives in any sense of the word. Their domestic and foreign policy prescriptions are anathema to conservatism.