Posted by
Andrews on Thursday, April 30, 2009 7:58:05 PM
The leftists on these blogs keep arguing that if the Republican party moves right it will cement their victory, that a true "right wing" party will offend everyone, and the "ideological purity" and "narrowness" of the Republicans will drive away voters.
I already addressed one error in this statement (as well as the "
party of no" sound bite), but I have two other questions. First, do they contend that the Democrat party, which brooks no opposition on any number of issues is more ideologically diverse? If not, then why would a similarly narrow Republican party be a negative?
Second, if the right is so reviled, and the public is so rabidly on the left, why do they run right to win, then lie about their true beliefs? If the public is so behind gay marriage, abortion on demand, affirmative action and so on, then why do they not come out and embrace these whole heartedly, rather than hide behind "safe, legal and rare" , "civil unions" and "equal opportunity"? In short if the left is so beloved, why did they need to run on vague platitudes like "change" to win, rather than coming out and admitting their beliefs?
The truth is, the left won running against a moderate-left Republican party, which just shows when a race is all on the left, the more leftist side wins. So what? When there has been a choice on the right, more often than not, the right has resonated with the public as much or more than the left. Just look at referrenda on affirmative action, gay marriage, balanced budgets, term limits, restraints on taxation and so on. When there is a fair election, without ballot games, voting zombies and absentee ballots from cartoon characters, the right has won handily on most ballot initiatives and in many state elections.
The Republicans are losing by moving left, not by being too far right.