The elephant in the room

the long version

"Ryan Sager, a conservative and a libertarian, foresees major upheaval ahead for the Republican Party. As the long marriage of convenience between the social conservatives (a.k.a., the Religious Right), primarily in the South, and the small-government conservatives (a.k.a., libertarians), primarily in the West, is unraveling and the coalition that has put and kept the Republican Party in power faces disaster, the possibility of a Democratic resurgence is on the horizon." "Not only would infighting cripple the GOP, but the people ready to jump ship control much of the campaign cash (on Wall Street and elsewhere) and crucial swing votes (in "leave us alone" states such as Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Montana). As the nation's population and electoral map shift South and West, the current Republican Party increasingly favors Southern values (religion, morality, tradition) over Western ones (freedom, independence, privacy). The result? The party is in danger of losing its Western base." "All hope is not lost, however, and in The Elephant in the Room Sager offers a way out of the mangled mess. He calls it a renewal of fusionism, a better blend between liberty and tradition, freedom and responsibility; one that emphasizes small government instead of Republican-controlled government, morality instead of moralism, and principles instead of politics."--Jacket.