Spring Break
GOP must return to fundamental roots
T. Elliot Gaiser
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Opinion
The question many Republicans started asking in 2007 as dozens of GOP contenders for the presidential nomination, ranging from the more liberal Rudy Guilianni to the right-libertarian Ron Paul, was how to define the legacy of Republicanism. After the defeat of moderate-maverick John McCain, that debate continues.
There is nothing new in the history of the moderate-conservative war to own the GOP identity. After the death of the party's leader in Lincoln, the more hardline Republicans impeached the former moderate President Andrew Johnson in order to prosecute their reconstruction agenda.
Many see the current struggle in New York's 23rd congressional district - a struggle which saw dueling between GOP titans such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and ended in the more moderate candidate suspending her campaign Saturday - as a similar conflict between the hardliners and the pragmatists. In that case, they see this as suicide for a minority party crucified on a cross of a "take-no-prisoners" ideology, sacrificing any chance of regaining power for the pleasure of platform purity.
I agree that if this is part of some kind of purification strategy: a "litmus test" conservatism, which hauls to the guillitine any candidate without total adherence to a list of true-believer stances on everything from immigration to campaign finance reform, is unwise. It is indeed better, as Reagan noted, to support someone you agree with 70 percent of the time over someone you disagree with all the time. Realism is healthy. But I do not think that is what is happening in New York.
Republican Dede Scozzafava's specific positions that caused the likes of Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck to endorse the Third Party conservative Doug Hoffman are significant. She was pro-choice, pro-homosexual marriage, and pro-Obama stimulus package. I would argue that these issues are uniquely important. The government "stimulus" that borrowed billions and bailed out mortgages is a fundemental question of the individual's responsibility in society. The social questions are fundementally about the definition of family and personhood, or the basic nature of humanity. In fact, I submit that these issues frame the ultimate question which is at the root of all political debates in every generation of Americans.
There is nothing new in the history of the moderate-conservative war to own the GOP identity. After the death of the party's leader in Lincoln, the more hardline Republicans impeached the former moderate President Andrew Johnson in order to prosecute their reconstruction agenda.
Many see the current struggle in New York's 23rd congressional district - a struggle which saw dueling between GOP titans such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and ended in the more moderate candidate suspending her campaign Saturday - as a similar conflict between the hardliners and the pragmatists. In that case, they see this as suicide for a minority party crucified on a cross of a "take-no-prisoners" ideology, sacrificing any chance of regaining power for the pleasure of platform purity.
I agree that if this is part of some kind of purification strategy: a "litmus test" conservatism, which hauls to the guillitine any candidate without total adherence to a list of true-believer stances on everything from immigration to campaign finance reform, is unwise. It is indeed better, as Reagan noted, to support someone you agree with 70 percent of the time over someone you disagree with all the time. Realism is healthy. But I do not think that is what is happening in New York.
Republican Dede Scozzafava's specific positions that caused the likes of Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck to endorse the Third Party conservative Doug Hoffman are significant. She was pro-choice, pro-homosexual marriage, and pro-Obama stimulus package. I would argue that these issues are uniquely important. The government "stimulus" that borrowed billions and bailed out mortgages is a fundemental question of the individual's responsibility in society. The social questions are fundementally about the definition of family and personhood, or the basic nature of humanity. In fact, I submit that these issues frame the ultimate question which is at the root of all political debates in every generation of Americans.
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