Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaking to a local Republican group, said that if the Republican Party doesn’t become somewhat more libertarian on spending and social issues in the future, then he foresees a split in the party followed by the founding of a new party. See this article. Thanks to several people for this link.
Why can’t those who split from the party just go to the other conservative parties like the Constitution Party or America’s Independent Party? It will save a lot of time instead of creating a new one.
Exactly. This has been happening on both the left and the right for decades. Public figures make pronouncements that are picked up the media about how a new party “needs to be organized” or “may need to be organized,” and then describe a situation that was already addressed years earlier by whatever the relevant pre-existing 3rd party is. Has anyone asked Newt Gingrich what he thinks of the Constitution Party?
The existing third parties project an image of extremism which would prevent them from becoming competitive. The vote totals for the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party in recent elections indicate they are not competitive, and not capable of stopping the headlong rush toward statism.
What Newt is advocating is a big third party committed to less government. Hopefully committed to less government than Newt supported when he had power.
The Constitution Party favors trade protectionism, and most Republicans are for free trade.
The CP is also non-libertarian on the social issues.
Most of my “liberal” AND “conservative” friends test out as Libertarian when taking The World’s Smallest Political Quiz: http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html. I suspect Newt is absolutely correct.
Believe it or not there is an option between the two, communitarianism. It is more a ‘radical center’ between the neo-liberalism and ultra conservationism we are beginning to see today at the extreme ends. We must look for our common basis as a nation to remain strong while still having enough common sense to do so for the whole economically speak.
It is probable, I think, that there are more Republicans who are going over to the Democratic and Independent (“Decline to State” – in California) categories than to the smaller parties. In any case, the Republican Party will be a minor-sized party by 2012, so Mr. Gingrich need not worry about the situation any more – unless he truly desires to start a new party himself (which I doubt).