Which Way for the GOP?

The battle over which direction the Republican Party should take is an interesting one. On one side you find conservative stalwarts Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. On the other side you find people like Colin Powell and Tom Ridge. All four are Republicans, three of which served in the Bush Administration.

Limbaugh and Cheney stand on the right flank of the party. Daily, Limbaugh has a radio show with 20 million listeners, a soapbox on which to stand and wax philosophical. Cheney has positioned himself as the most outspoken critic of the Obama Administration on foreign policy. The two are hard line conservatives, social and fiscal, who believe that a rightward shift, a return to conservative principle, is the answer for the GOP.

To the left of Cheney and Limbaugh stands the Ridge/Powell Republicans. Tom Ridge is pro-choice while Powell publically endorsed Barack Obama in the last election cycle. Powell is also on record stating that Americans are willing to pay more taxes for more services.

So, the difference seems pretty clear. Ridge is weak on social conservatism and Powell is a fiscal moderate. Cheney and Limbaugh are both fiscal and social conservatives.

Recently, an intraparty battle is taking place between the two camps. The media, many consultants and strategists and some political figures within the party are telling the Republican Party to move towards the center. Interestingly enough, Democrats have put in their two cents, also saying that the Republican Party will be irrelevant if it does not move towards the center.

First of all, and most obviously, the GOP should not take the advice of Democrats. The Democrats do not have the best interests of their opposition at heart. Sure, the Democrats would love for Republicans to move to the center. That would ensure passage of more Democrat legislation, making the liberal agenda even easier to implement.

Generally moving towards the left on social policy does not seem to be a winning idea either if one looks at recent evidence. States across the country have added amendments to their constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Proposition 8 in California passed 52% to 48%, defining marriage between a man and a woman. The same Californians voted overwhelmingly for President Obama, who, by the way, believes that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. In Iowa, where gay marriage recently was legalized by the courts, polls show that more than 60% of Iowans believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. In addition, for the first time, Gallup Polling shows that over 50% of Americans describe themselves as pro-life. Social moderation does not seem to be the answer.

What about fiscal moderation? Does Colin Powell’s argument that Americans want to pay more taxes hold water? The voters of California recently rejected ballot measures that would increase taxes to pay off the states massive debt, which was built up because of a myriad of social programs. Over 20 tax increase measure have been defeated in North Carolina over the past couple of years. Mayor Bloomberg of New York recent came out against tax increases in his city and he is not exactly a hard line conservative. States with higher tax rates, especially highly progressive tax rates, and higher social spending are in huge fiscal messes and their populations are fleeing to tax havens. Florida and Texas are massive super-states with rapidly growing populations and relatively good economies. Texas is in great fiscal shape. Could that be because these two states do not levy income taxes?

In the 2008 election cycle, Republican presidential candidate John McCain represented the moderate wing of the party. Sure, he talked the conservative talk but the country knows his record has a maverick moderate. He seems like the type of Republican that Colin Powell would endorse if that Republican was not running against a black man. President Obama whipped Senator McCain in the 2008 election largely because the GOP base was less than excited about their candidate. Many Republicans claim that they voted for very conservative VP candidate Sarah Palin, it just so happened McCain was on top of the ticket. Let us remember that it was the the true conservatives’ conservative, Ronald Reagan, who won re-election in 1984 with the biggest landslide since before the Civil War.

Conservatism is not dead and cannot be moderated. It is a winner. Republican moderation will leave the party as nothing more than a less left wing faction of the Democrat Party. Republicans must stick to their conservative message so they can say “I told you so” when the liberal policies of the Democrats fail and conservatism is called in to save the day. Rush Limbaugh asked a question that really frames the issue in a thought-provoking way: “If conservatism is dead, then why is everyone going out of their way to try and kill it?”