Over the weekend all the buzz on the weekend talk shows centered on the two gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and the hotly contested senate race in New York. I found it very interesting that in the latter-the three way race between Democrat Bill Owens,Republican DeDe Scozzafava, and Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman- all the commentators seemed to lump Hoffman in as a Republican just because he is conservative.
There was barely a mention of the fact that Hoffman wasn't just a conservative Republican causing trouble for the official Republican nominee,but that he is in fact, the nominee of a totally separate "Conservative" party. To top it all off Scozzafava -who had the endorsement of no less a Republican party luminary than Newt Gingrich (why I don't know)-was forced to pull out,and even endorsed the Democratic candidate.
I find myself wondering if this could be the beginning of a movement that could be a rude awakening for the "Grand Old Party". I also think this may be a good time for the GOP to reexamine the history of it's own beginning!
The Republican Party- or the Grand Old Party-had its beginnings in 1854 when disaffected opponents of slavery from the Whig,Freesoil, and Democratic parties met in Jackson Michigan to form a new party which they called "The Republican Party".
Until that time the Whig party had been promising to oppose slavery but didn't keep that promise. Today "Conservatives" have been courted for years by a party that increasingly acts anything but conservative.
Many seem to think the two are one in the same,but, THEY ARE NOT!! Republicans can be conservative but many conservatives-myself included-just happen to vote Republican more often than not. However this same group of people would be just as happy voting for a conservative Democrat against a liberal Republican-or as I believe was the case in the last two National elections-not vote at all.
Yes the "Grand Old Party" would do well to take stock. This new conservative movement, and this new "Conservative Party", might well leave them on the dust heap of history alongside the old "Whig Party"!
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