{"id":688,"date":"2013-01-02T21:47:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T02:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=688"},"modified":"2013-01-02T21:47:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T02:47:15","slug":"more-conservative-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/01\/more-conservative-blindness.html","title":{"rendered":"More “Conservative” Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his most recent piece, the widely respected Thomas Sowell refers to the GOP as \u201cthe 8th<\/sup> wonder of the world\u201d for its uncanny ability to continue \u201crepeating the same mistakes for decades on end [.]\u201d The Republican establishment, Sowell complains, persists in nominating \u201cad hoc moderates\u201d\u2014like Mitt Romney\u2014as their presidential candidates\u2014even though these moderates unfailingly \u201cget beaten by even vulnerable, unknown or discredited Democrats.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This, Sowell thinks, is because these \u201cpragmatic moderates\u2026feed pablum to the public, instead of treating them like adults.\u201d When it comes to conveying a \u201ccoherent argument, instead of ad hoc talking points,\u201d Republican politicians generally fail abysmally.<\/p>\n

Given the admiration that I always had for Sowell, it pains me to confess that his analysis\u2014which has been echoed by many others in \u201cthe conservative media\u201d\u2014reveals the depths of the mess in which the mainstream right is mired.<\/p>\n

In other words, it is Sowell\u2019s mentality that accounts for why Republicans are \u201cthe 8th<\/sup> wonder of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sowell decries \u201cad hoc moderates\u201d he means to refer to \u201cRepublican-In-Name-Only\u201d (RINO) types.\u00a0 That is, it is Republican liberals <\/em>for whom he reserves his disdain.\u00a0 And when he criticizes their penchant for \u201cad hoc talking points,\u201d as opposed to \u201ccoherent argument,\u201d it is their inability or unwillingness to explain to voters the rational and moral superiority of their positions to which he speaks.<\/p>\n

There is more than one problem with this reasoning, but the one problem that is most glaring\u2014and most serious\u2014is the assumption that lies at its heart.\u00a0 It is the assumption that there really is a meaningful distinction to be drawn between Republicans who are \u201cmoderates\u201d and those who are not.<\/p>\n

Sowell lambasts Mitt Romney for being an \u201cad hoc moderate,\u201d but during the presidential primaries he endorsed Newt Gingrich.\u00a0 <\/em>How, we must ask, is the latter any less a \u201cmoderate\u201d than the former?\u00a0 If anything, from their respective stances on immigration to foreign policy to Big Government generally, the case can be made that Gingrich is actually more <\/em>of a so-called \u201cmoderate\u201d\u2014i.e. liberal\u2014than Romney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And what is true of Gingrich is no less true of Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Chris Christie, and virtually every other Republican who is widely heralded as a \u201cstar\u201d of \u201cthe conservative movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most tellingly of all is that it is also true of the god of the movement, Ronald W. Reagan.\u00a0 If a \u201cmoderate\u201d is a Republican liberal, and the latter is but a champion of what I have elsewhere called Gargantuan Government, then, in practice, even if not in rhetoric, Reagan was as much of such a champ as anyone.<\/p>\n

The federal government continued to grow and grow and grow during Reagan\u2019s two terms in office. He succeeded in eliminating not a single government program, let alone an agency.\u00a0 Taxes were cut in his first year as president, yes, but they were increased many times after that.\u00a0 Spending far exceeded even Jimmy Carter\u2019s wildest forecast, we \u201ccut and run\u201d after more than 200 of our Marines were killed in Lebanon, and millions of illegal immigrants were granted amnesty\u2014all under Reagan\u2019s watch. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither Sowell nor most people would say that Gingrich was inarticulate\u2014and no one, at least nowadays, would say anything of the sort about Reagan.\u00a0 For that matter, neither is Romney, Santorum nor any number of other Republican \u201cmoderates\u201d incapable of talking a good talk.<\/p>\n

But in the end, their feet failed, as they always fail, to synchronize with their lips.<\/p>\n

Can it be, not that Republicans fail to convey their message, but that they fail to implement it when they have the chance to do so?\u00a0 Can it be that they have ruined their credibility because their walk never meshes with their talk?<\/p>\n

It is true that Republicans have a more difficult time making inroads with the American public given that much of the media remains under the control of Democratic sympathizers. Yet it never seems to dawn upon Republican politicians and commentators that they have made their rivals\u2019 work that much easier by repeatedly professing their commitment to ideals that are conspicuously remote from the real world, ideals that they never come near to fleshing out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, Republicans go on and on about \u201climited government\u201d and \u201clower taxes,\u201d say, but everywhere Americans look, all that they experience are burdensome taxes and an omnipresent government. Such is the case whether Republicans are in or out of power.<\/p>\n

Republicans, in short, all too easily come across as insincere.\u00a0 They can even be seen as more, not less, power-hungry than Democrats because of this.<\/p>\n

Until Sowell and others on the right understand that conservatives\u2019 ticket to winning future elections is to make sure that they are, well, conservative, Republicans will continue \u201crepeating the same mistakes\u201d for more \u201cdecades on end.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his most recent piece, the widely respected Thomas Sowell refers to the GOP as \u201cthe 8th wonder of the world\u201d for its uncanny ability to continue \u201crepeating the same mistakes for decades on end [.]\u201d The Republican establishment, Sowell complains, persists in nominating \u201cad hoc moderates\u201d\u2014like Mitt Romney\u2014as their presidential candidates\u2014even though these moderates…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMore "Conservative" Blindness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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