Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The French UMP Crisis Holds Lessons for the American Republicans
The French Right...the political heirs of General de Gaulle...is in a terrible internal fight for the control of the latest incarnation of the French conservative movement, which is normally the majority party in French politics. The Gaullists, as French conservatives are called generically, often change the name of their party to accommodate the desires of their leader. When Francois Sarkozy became party head and presidential candidate, he named the party the UMP...Union for a Presidential Majority. Sarkozy lost his bid for re-election last April and withdrew from party leadership. This left Sarkozy's prime minister, Francois Fillon, and the administrative head of the UMP, Jean-Francois Cope, fighting each other for party leadership. The vote of UMP members ten day ago resulted in a virtual tie...about 100 votes separated Fillon and Cope. Cope declared himself the victor. Fillon refused to concede, saying he had won. After days of public name-calling and extreme bitterness between the two men and their followers, several things emerged. First, Fillon threatened to sue Cope. Then, the "Fillonistes" said they would form a new caucus in the French National Assembly - but would vote as one UMP block with Cope's group on Assembly matters. Many UMP politicians called this suicidaire. Cope predictably agreed. UMP old pols called for the return of Francois Sarkozy to put the UMP house in order. Then...Voila! Sarkozy apparently called each man to his office for talks. And today Cope and Fillon met privately while Sarkozy was declaring that he would not let his UMP party collapse. Tonight we learn that the two men have apparently agreed to hold a party member referendum to decide if a re-vote should be held on party leadership. In effect, a vote to decide if there will be a vote. Only in France, one might be tempted to say. But, there are lessons to be learned...especially for the American conservative GOP party. After a devastating presidential loss against Barak Obama, the GOP is engaged in serious soul-searching...literally. Republicans are trying to find and define their "soul"...and this process has become very devisive, as the moderate wing of the party (those who favor abortion, gay rights, and integrating minorities into the GOP, including most illegal immigrants) and the social right of the GOP (those who oppose abortion and gay rights, who favor traditional family values, and who call for the deportation of illegal immigrants) are in a public arm wrestling match for control of the GOP's future. The French UMP have the advantage here because they are only arguing about leadership and the probable next UMP presidential candidate...there is no dispute about party ideology. But in the US, the GOP argument is almost entirely ideological, and if history teaches us anything, it is that heartfelt differences in ideology among 'brothers' have produced some of history's most vicious wars and most wrenching redefinitions of society. American conservatives would do well to remember this as they pick up the ruins of the 2012 presidential loss and prepare to move toward 2016. The Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln deserves better than to be consigned to the American political garbage heap.
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The GOP needs to have both dedicated leaders willing to pitch in do the grunt work rebuild this party from the ward level up to the national party level. The re-builders may in the end become candidates ... but in the beginning they need to be unselfish mechanics that can do the work and have pride in the fact that they and they alone saved Lincoln's party from obscurity.
ReplyDeleteWe also need a far reaching plan with longevity well past the 2016 elections.. A far reaching plan that can accommodated many varied opinions ... opinions are like elbows we all have them and ours are the most important, just ask us.
Such a plan that would be that far reaching and sustaining over time would be a simple - "REINVENTION OF OUR GOVERNMENT"
We mustn’t assume that we are going to deinvent government solely from inside the Beltway or within one or two sessions of Congress. We will do it one step at a time, in one community at a time—at the local level and through local institutions like churches, nonprofit and volunteer organizations, and families.PEOPLE INSIDE THE BELTWAY IN WAHINGTON DC HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE and therefore they have no idea what the solutions are.
And if we succeed, we won’t just be rolling back big government; we will be laying the groundwork for an even greater revolution, one that bears witness to the awesome power of American ideals.
de Tocqueville said it so well when he wrote in Democracy in America that the strength of the Americans lie in their ability to solve their own problems. And he is important here because American is like France was before their revolution
The "Rick Santorums" will never let it happen...and he will NEVER be my Party nominee.
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