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Part Two

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Part 2
Special Section

This new section of our website will evolve and be under construction
during quarters 1, 2, and 3 of 2009

Templates
for Conservative Leadership

About  20twentytwelve12
Commentary & Reference Documents

(3) The Republican Civil War
by Dr. Thomas Sowell

Human Events
Posted 03/18/2009

As if it is not enough that they have been decimated by the Democrats in the past couple of elections, the Republican survivors are now turning their guns on each other.

At the heart of these internal battles have been attacks on Rush Limbaugh by Republicans who imagine themselves to be so much more sophisticated because they are so much more in step with the political fashions of the time.

New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's cheap shot at Rush's program as "ugly" set off the latest round of in-fighting. That is the kind of thing that is usually said by liberals who have never listened to the program.

Regular listeners to the Rush Limbaugh program or subscribers to the Limbaugh newsletter know that both contain far more factual information and in-depth analysis than in the programs or writings of pundits with more of a ponderous tone or intellectual airs.

Why Michael Steele found it necessary to say such a thing -- except as a sop to the liberal intelligentsia -- is one of the many mysteries of the Republican Party. Steele has since apologized to Rush but you cannot unring the bell.

More important, the mindset it betrays is at the heart of many of the problems of the Republican Party, going back for years, long before Michael Steele appeared on the scene.

There has long been an element of the Republican Party that has felt a need to distance themselves from people who stand up for conservative principles, whether those with principles have been Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh or whomever.

The latest example is John McCain's daughter, who has said how embarrassed she is by having to explain Ann Coulter to her friends. If it wasn't for articulate conservatives like Ann Coulter, both the Republican Party and the country would be in even worse shape than they are now, for there are extremely few articulate Republican politicians who can make the case for any principle. Certainly Ms. McCain's father is not one of them.

The only time John McCain led Barack Obama in the polls last year was after Gov. Sarah Palin joined the ticket. The economic collapse doomed their candidacies, but McCain would have had no chance at all with another inconsistent and inarticulate Republican like himself on the ticket.

Yet many in the Republican Party seem to have felt as embarrassed by Governor Palin as they have been by others who articulated principles, instead of trying to be in step with the fashions of the time -- fashions set by liberals.

Maybe those Republicans who put a high value on being accepted in elite circles should be embarrassed by the narrowness of their elite friends, who disdain or demonize people whose principles they disagree with, instead of answering their arguments.

There has even been an undercurrent among some Republicans of a sense that it is time to move away from the image of Ronald Reagan, to update the party and court newer and less embarrassing segments of the voters than their current base.

There is certainly a lot to be said for inviting wider segments of the population to join you, by explaining how your principles benefit the country in general, and those segments in particular. But that is fundamentally different from abandoning your principles in hopes of attracting new votes with opportunism.

No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population.

The teachers' unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.

Yet the Republicans have never articulated that argument, and their opportunism in trying to get black votes by becoming imitation Democrats has failed miserably for decades on end.

There seemed, for an all too brief moment, that Michael Steele might have been the one to provide such much overdue articulation -- and possibly he still might, but only if he stays out of the Republican trap of trying to appease opponents by throwing supporters to the wolves.

Dr. Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of "Applied Economics" and "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."
Copyright © 2009 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.

Other Voices for the
First Installment of
Templates for
Conservative
Leadership 2012

1. Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Candidate.  Her 2009 State of the State address to Alaskans

2.  Michael Dolan, Executive VP for Exxon Mobile talks about 21st Century energy with some foundational perspectives on why Cap and Trade is terrible for the economy and the nation.

3. Dr. Thomas Sowell Hoover Institute scholar on why Republicans should stay focused on applying conservative thought to policy making.

4.  Phyllis Schlafly, Commentator on how marriage can be saved from the gay lobby.

5. Representative Louie Gohmert on why the "Hate Crimes" bill violates the First Amendment rights of the Constitution.

6. Lee Walker and Joseph Bast, Senior Fellow and President of the Heartland Institute respectively on why blacks should naturally embrace conservative policy.

7. Dr. Kim R. Holmes, Heritage Foundation scholar on Obama's First 100 Days of liberalism.

8. Aryeh Spero, Radio Talk Show Host on why Republicans should stay conservative.

9. Doug Patton, Columnist, political speech writer and policy advisor on conservative women and leadership.

10. Pat Buchanan, is a nationally syndicated columnist, former Presidential advisor, best selling author and one of the premier conservative intellects in America. 

11. Human Events, Petition
National Security. Human Events is the news source President Reagan called his "favorite newspaper" and we still hold high the Reaganesque principles of free enterprise, limited government and, above all, a staunch, unwavering defense of American freedom.

12.  Lt. Colonel Oliver North. Nationally syndicated columnist and the author of the FOX News/Regnery books, "War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom,"  and "War Stories III: The Heroes Who Defeated Hitler."
Lt. North hosts "War Stories"  on Fox News Channel.