GILMORE: Conservatism has too many voices

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By James S. Gilmore III

OPINION/ANALYSIS:

The election of Barack Obama opens the door to the implementation of a new-left program, which I have called the "new socialism."

Grounded in fear after the Sept. 11 attacks and Wall Street panic and fueled by a great anger and frustration with the Bush administration, a long-sought program of the political left is under way.

The political rules that have developed over years - seniority, campaign-finance restrictions and pork-barrel politics in both parties - may make it difficult, if not impossible, to arrest this leftist program.

The nation's only hope rests in the conservative movement, which must provide the intellectual underpinnings for new and different directions for America.

The challenge we face is that the conservative movement does not speak only with many voices, but with contradictory voices. The shrill conflict in the conservative movement comes at a time when the American people are tired of conflict.

During the eight years of the Bush administration, the liberals attacked relentlessly. The Bush response was often cloaked in swagger and hubris. Left-leaning journalists have heaped scorn, contempt and anger on George W. Bush, who became a stand-in for conservatives.

The task now is not just to explain better, but also to convince people that the individual still has value and that the state should not control all the options a citizen has in his daily life.

Is the conservative movement capable today of providing that direction? It is not. There are too many groups with too many disparate messages.

What are these groups, and what are they saying?