Should Conservatives Create the Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Party?

 

life-liberty-and-happinessIf a rump Le-Pen-style Republican Party emerges (oozes out?) after this election, freedom-loving Americans like me will knock the dust of the GOP off our sandals and start anew. What would be a good name for the next conservative party?

I know it’s long but what about the Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Party?

We could trade the “Republicans” label for “Pursuers” or “Lifers”? What about “Liberals”? This LLPH Party could be the official name and use “Liberty Party” for short and then go about reclaiming and rehabilitating the (classical) “Liberal” label.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

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  1. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    We would all no doubt want it to be labelled using words that represent, for us, the most important aspects of our political views.  Words like Freedom, Independent, Liberty, Constiution, etc. might come in to play.  Which is why I suggest that we call it whatever we want, but ensure that it is the “____________ Partaaaay!!!!”

    • #1
  2. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Like the name!

    • #2
  3. TeamAmerica Member
    TeamAmerica
    @TeamAmerica

    Let’s take a cue from Australia and call it the ‘Liberal Party,’ in the nineteenth century sense of tolerant. After all, the quasi-religious intolerance today is mostly from the left.

    • #3
  4. Caroline Inactive
    Caroline
    @Caroline

    Nice logo.

    • #4
  5. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    I want to take the word liberal back. It was our word first.

    • #5
  6. TKC1101 Member
    TKC1101
    @

    I assume you want a party that attracts as many as possible. I would suggest going for a name where not joining it makes you pond scum.

    “Free People Party”

    “I Gotta Be Me Party”  (already has a theme song)

    “American Citizen Party”

    “Free American Party”

    Never lead with concepts, always lead with emotion.

    I would suggest a slogan of “Get Off My Lawn”

     

    • #6
  7. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Valiuth is right, liberal is the right word, Republican is the right party, so “Liberal Republican” but make it clear it isn’t compassionate conservative, big government conservative or anything in the progressive tradition.   Those other guys are progressives, not us.  They don’t fear the label any more so let them have it, then, once it sticks,  dig up what progressives had to say 100 years ago.  There is a reason they abandoned the word and took ours.

    • #7
  8. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    The adult party. The Eagle will obviously be our symbol.

    I am a leader of a Christian based Scouting ministry for 11-17-year-old boys. Last night one of my students was interviewing me for one of his patches. His first question was “When did you know you were a man?” My answer was “When I left home and got my own place and took responsibility for my own actions and well-being.”

     

    I can’t wait to print up the bumper stickers.

    -Anti-Parasite-

    -Modern Abolitionist-

    -The Eagle has landed-

    • #8
  9. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    I don’t know that there’s a single issue large enough to focus a new party toward success. I think liberty should be that issue, but clearly it is not a concern to a great many of our fellow citizens.

    • #9
  10. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    The King Prawn:I don’t know that there’s a single issue large enough to focus a new party toward success. I think liberty should be that issue, but clearly it is not a concern to a great many of our fellow citizens.

    That’s fairly universal.  That’s why we have two+ parties today.

    Eric Hines

    • #10
  11. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Eric Hines:

    The King Prawn:I don’t know that there’s a single issue large enough to focus a new party toward success. I think liberty should be that issue, but clearly it is not a concern to a great many of our fellow citizens.

    That’s fairly universal. That’s why we have two+ parties today.

    Eric Hines

    I think the GOP has to completely fall apart before a viable other party can step in. Right now we’d simply fracture the right of center, leaving the dems in total control of the federal government. I think a more likely scenario is a weakened GOP, perhaps some surge in the Libertarian party (should they grow up a little), and perhaps moving toward a more coalition style governing model. The party has voters over a barrel, as demonstrated by the last 3 presidential elections.

    • #11
  12. Postmodern Hoplite Coolidge
    Postmodern Hoplite
    @PostmodernHoplite

    I could live with “the Liberty Party.”

    • #12
  13. Chuckles Coolidge
    Chuckles
    @Chuckles

    Constitution Party

    • #13
  14. Postmodern Hoplite Coolidge
    Postmodern Hoplite
    @PostmodernHoplite

    Chuckles:Constitution Party

    Already taken. Their candidate is Darrell Castle. http://www.constitutionparty.com/

     

    • #14
  15. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    I’ve wanted the word “Liberal” back for ages. Somewhere in the depths of the earliest Ricochet archives — I can’t be bothered to search for it — there’s a post in which I lament the new, vulgar usage of that word. We lost a word that had an important meaning, and contracted our horizons because we had no replacement word to signify an important set of concepts. I’d strongly favor trying to reclaim it.

    The only problem is that this election suggests to me that the number of genuinely liberal Americans is much smaller than I realized. That’s no argument against it, though. It just means that we need more than a name change. I means we have to rebuild the civic fabric of the country back to the place we thought it was — which is far more challenging, even, than building a new political party.

    • #15
  16. Tyler Boliver Inactive
    Tyler Boliver
    @Marlowe

    Valiuth:I want to take the word liberal back. It was our word first.

    If we start now, my future Great , Great, Great Grandkids in 2147 maybe able to use the term that way.

    • #16
  17. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    The Right Party

    We could have so much fun with that play on words.

    • #17
  18. Paul Dougherty Member
    Paul Dougherty
    @PaulDougherty

    I think it was Ben Domenech who ruminated once in one of his radio hours the “Liberal Federalist Party”. I liked it.

    • #18
  19. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    The Sons and Daughters of Washington?

    • #19
  20. St. Salieri / Eric Cook Member
    St. Salieri / Eric Cook
    @

    I vote, Liberal Party.

    It is a page from their playbook, and if it was done right, we wouldn’t have our politicians in such a party stumbling on the shows saying things like, “no, we’re not liberal it used to mean…”

    They would say things like, “Yes, I’m a liberal.”

    • #20
  21. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    I like the Liberal party as well. The motto could be “Life, Liberty and Property.”

    • #21
  22. Matt Bartle Member
    Matt Bartle
    @MattBartle

    I would like a name that draws attention to what Franklin said:”A Republic if you can keep it.”

    Maybe the Repub……

    Ah, damn.

    • #22
  23. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    “Life, liberty and the Purfoot of Happineff?”

    “That’s Pursuit of Happiness.”

    “All your S’s look like F’s.”

    “It’s stylish. It’s in, it’s very in.”

    • #23
  24. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Matt Bartle:I would like a name that draws attention to what Franklin said:”A Republic if you can keep it.”

    Maybe the Repub……

    Ah, damn.

    The You Can Keep It Party

    • #24
  25. Dean Murphy Member
    Dean Murphy
    @DeanMurphy

    We could call it LLaPH for short…

    • #25
  26. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    The King Prawn:

    Eric Hines:

    The King Prawn:I don’t know that there’s a single issue large enough to focus a new party toward success. I think liberty should be that issue, but clearly it is not a concern to a great many of our fellow citizens.

    That’s fairly universal. That’s why we have two+ parties today.

    Eric Hines

    I think the GOP has to completely fall apart before a viable other party can step in. Right now we’d simply fracture the right of center, leaving the dems in total control of the federal government. I think a more likely scenario is a weakened GOP, perhaps some surge in the Libertarian party (should they grow up a little), and perhaps moving toward a more coalition style governing model. The party has voters over a barrel, as demonstrated by the last 3 presidential elections.

    Not entirely.  Also as demonstrated in the last four elections, including two presidential elections, voters have rejected Democrat candidates in Congress and in State governorships and legislatures.

    As for the GOP, a lot will depend on how much more influence Tea Partiers can develop within the party and on how serious other Conservatives are in developing a new party–which would require more cohesiveness and a greater dedication to the overall mission at the expense of personal ideological purity than has been the case recently.  This doesn’t contradict the above; the more down-ballot we go, the more directly local our politics get and so the more differences can be accepted.

    Too, the Republican Party was once a third party.  It didn’t take them long to supplant another.

    Eric Hines

    • #26
  27. John Stanley Coolidge
    John Stanley
    @JohnStanley

    Life, Liberty, and Property”  It is a little less vague than “happiness”, and it is time John Locke gets proper credit.

    • #27
  28. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    Claire Berlinski, Ed.:I’ve wanted the word “Liberal” back for ages. Somewhere in the depths of the earliest Ricochet archives — I can’t be bothered to search for it — there’s a post in which I lament the new, vulgar usage of that word. We lost a word that had an important meaning, and contracted our horizons because we had no replacement word to signify an important set of concepts. I’d strongly favor trying to reclaim it.

    The only problem is that this election suggests to me that the number of genuinely liberal Americans is much smaller than I realized. That’s no argument against it, though. It just means that we need more than a name change. I means we have to rebuild the civic fabric of the country back to the place we thought it was — which is far more challenging, even, than building a new political party.

    I don’t think there’s much to be gained–but much to be lost–in playing semantic games with party names.  The original meaning (at least its political more or less origin in the 18th century) needs to become reacquainted with the modern American citizen before it’s useful as the shorthand designator that a party name must be.  A new conservative party needs to have a name that conveys conservatism to today’s citizenry.

    It might be useful to have a currently understandable party name while talking about liberalism in the party’s platform and mission statement.  But maybe not.  We’re no longer liberal or even classical liberal, we’re trying to conserve what (classical) liberalism had wrought.  And to restore much of what has been lost.

    Eric Hines

    • #28
  29. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    And while we’re arguing about an entity’s name, what work is being done on the core: the party’s mission statement and platform?

    Eric Hines

    • #29
  30. Big Ern Inactive
    Big Ern
    @BigErn

    I would support the re-emergence of the Federalist Party. The Federalists were supporters of the Constitution, heavily anti-Slavery, pro-free commerce, pro-American “classical liberals.” They were the party of Washington, Hamilton, Jay, Madison, and Adams. The Federalists championed the Constitutional cause, and were responsible for winning its ratification. More than the Democratic Republicans or other anti-Federalists, the Federalists planted the American flag and built civilizations as waves of emigrants flooded into the west. There is no other political movement in American history with such a proud tradition.

    Not to mention, what our nation needs above all if we are to survive as a Union is a titanic shot of Federalism, and a devolution of power back to the States.

    • #30
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