Redstate

By Thomas Posted in Republicans — Comments (12) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

As is inevitable when Republicans win big, the circular firing squads have started their practice routines. (Compare to the Democrats, who only try out their imploding bayonet routine after losses.) And, since we seem to be thoroughly clobbering the Democrats everywhere but the Northeast and the state houses (a cause for concern, but we'll get to that later), we inevitably start trying to define folks out of the Party.

It is a truism that the Republican Party is the Conservative Party, much as the Democrat Party is the Liberal Party. But that begs as many questions as it answers. What does it mean to be a Republican?

It means being proud to be an American; being part of the majority party; and so much more.

Read on.

It means a belief in ordered liberty -- that human beings can reach their greatest potential with minimal government influence; but that men, never angels, still need some bare rules in which to work. It means a belief in the rule of law, not of men. It means believing that, generally, the fewer rules and taxes laid down on human enterprise, the better.

It means a belief that not only are all Men created equal, but also that it is an innate condition of human beings, not an arbitrary gift of government. It means that all humans carry within them, inseparably and without any need for government affirmation or provision, certain basic rights, not the least of which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It means that we believe America is a shining city on a hill, the last, best hope of Mankind. That though America is not perfect -- and never will be -- we are the best thing going. That "American exceptionalism" is a good thing, and not a slander. It means that we believe America can achieve almost anything, if it puts its collective mind to it. It means that when and if America eventually falls, the world will be a darker place -- and it means that we know it.

It means remembering that Americans are not a weird mishmash of competing interest and ethnic groups, but a people bound together, not by blood, but by common dreams and beliefs and hopes, and by a belief that some truths are self-evident.

It means knowing that politics ends at some point, and the important things in life -- hearth, home, faith, family, community -- resume.

It means knowing that sometimes the dark and terrible things of the world can and should be allowed to die their own deaths, and sometimes, rough men must gather their arms and march into battle to defeat them.

After 1968, the Democrats, with a few honorable exceptions, abdicated their responsibility on national security, preferring to believe that the vicious tyranny ensconsed in Moscow was somehow our moral equal. (Some things never change.) We did not. We stood that lonely rampart, even after our fellows had deserted it. We stared into darkness's own red glare, loosed our sword in its scabbard, and watched the darkness blink first. The world is better for it. The men and women who taste freedom in Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, even in the Soviet states falling into kleptocracy, are better for it. We can be proud of that.

Whatever you may think of Iraq, and this President's foreign policy, the animating spirit of it, Buchananite- and lefty-agitprop to the side, is a very Republican (not neoconservative) one: That all men desire freedom in their hearts. That oppression wounds us all. That human beings desire nothing so much as to see if their reach can indeed exceed their grasp -- to try to touch the face of God. Whether you think the foreign policy of the last four years is wise or foolish, recognize that at its heart is what makes us Republicans, and what makes us Americans.

We stood together during the Cold War because we recognized the principles that bound us together, and we remembered, like good Republicans, that there are sometimes bigger things in the world than our own internal squabbles over the marginal tax rate or whether the next Republican was "pure" enough.

So a word to the moderates: Without us, you're toast. Utterly destroyed. We came to the Party because a fellow named Reagan pointed out that protecting innocent human life is a Republican value (and because the Democrats seemed intent on destroying it). You think we're God-bothering extremists who want to lock down women's wombs? Rampant creationists who want to smash every bit of post 1900 technology we can get our hands on? Take a deep breath and ask what would have happened but for us far-rightists in Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. And a little place called "the South." Heck, do you think you'd have had Texas locked up without us? (Well, against Kerry, maybe.) Don't let your predominance on the Internet fool you: We outnumber you, big-time, in real life. You're welcome in the tent, but remember, we're not saps to be tossed a cheap rhetorical bone from time to time. Catholics and Evangelicals and gun-nuts and all the rest don't have to vote. And don't forget, especially as so many of you have trouble talking about God: In a country with such a high religious self-identification, you seriously don't want to sound like Democrats on the campaign trail.

And to my fellow social conservatives: Consider where we'd be without the moderates. They are our margin of victory. They are also the means by which we speak to America as a whole, a reminder that not everyone shares our every view on every issue. They are our sounding board, our reality check, our anchor. (And be thankful we have them: Do we really want to turn out like this? That's what comes of having a political echo chamber.) And, let us not forget that much as we like to deride Chafee and Specter and Snowe and Voinovich and the rest of the "RINOs" (well, Specter maybe doesn't need the scare quotes) we would not be in striking distance of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate without them. We would not be at par with the Donkeys, and beyond. Supreme Court Justices who recognize that Roe is an abomination (and who, not coincidentally, see law the way the moderates do) would not be within grasping distance.

I'm prone to making fun of Senators McCain, Lugar, and Hagel (for autophilia, more than their alleged moderation), but I always remember this: How many canvassers in 2004 were moderates? Conservatives? How many poll watchers? How many GOTV leaders? Who cares? They were Republicans, who volunteered their time and talent. Without them, we'd be talking about President-elect Kerry's Inaugural ball ($50 million, and cheap at twice the price!). And for men and women who long for freedom everywhere, the world would be a darker place.

Being the majority Party is hard. We disagree. We squabble. But by God, no one who believes in the basics gets elbowed out of the tent.

Because we're Republicans.