To What Extent Do Fiscal Conservatives Now Dominate the Republican Party?

To What Extent Do Fiscal Conservatives Now Dominate the Republican Party?

  • Submitted By: 277077
  • Date Submitted: 12/18/2013 4:17 AM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
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The term Fiscal Conservative is broad term used to describe the group of Republican’s whose primary concerns fall in line with traditional right wing economic and fiscal policy. This can stretch to those affiliated with the Tea Party movement on the populist right and it is important to note that the majority of Republicans are fiscally conservative in some sense. Furthermore, it can be noted that most fiscal conservatives fall under the same ideology as social conservatives when it comes to the social issues that the social conservatives concern themselves with. One of the most recent notable successes of the fiscal conservative faction in the Republican Party was the recent defence cuts that took place during the last sequester, as well as the decline in compassionate conservatives such as George W. Bush in the party. In order to assess the extent to which the fiscal conservatives dominate, we will have to look at factors such as their roles in the Presidency and primary elections, how vocal and prominent they are in elected office and their success in getting their economic and social ideas into Republican ideology.
In the election in 2012, the republican candidates for President and Vice-President were Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan respectively. Both Romney and Ryan relate themselves with the fiscal conservative faction, which clearly shows that there are two dominant fiscal conservatives at the head of the Republican Party, or at least there were last year. However, although Ryan identifies himself strongly as a fiscal conservative, Romney ran with policies that would lead one to believe that he was a moderate conservative. Arguably, he had to do this in order to be successful as a candidate during the primaries, which shows perhaps that Republican voters are disassociated with the fiscal conservative faction. This is a big opening into the extent to which they dominate the party, as there can only be a certain amount of domination before the voters not...

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