OPINION:
A poll this week in The Washington Post reveals that 70 percent to 75 percent of Americans, including independent voters, think the Republican Party is not “in touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today.” This stunning insight into the minds of 315 million Americans comes from “a random national sample of 1,003 adults,” of whom 33 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 36 percent as independents and 23 percent as Republicans. The other 8 percent are presumably busy in Chicago’s thriving cemeteries.
The survey was no doubt intended to further intimidate the squishies within the Grand Old Party, persuading them that to survive they must abandon all principle, conviction and belief. All they must do to win back the enthusiastic support of America is to soften their resolve, dispense with determination, and become, as Margaret Thatcher might have said of her Tory detractors, a bit more “wet,” a British word for “weak” and “spineless.”
Defend marriage? “That train has left the station,” several Republican “influencers” say. Forgetting both Republican principles and years of party platforms, the idea now is to cave on a bedrock of cultural values, reinforced over the centuries by every major religious faith and family stability and prosperity and leap aboard the bandwagon chasing any kind of “marriage,” whatever that may be.
There’s a case to be made for extending many, if not most, of the rights and protections afforded to married couples to those entering a civil union. Inheritance, hospital visitation, equal tax treatment all these are things that could be granted to various kinds of registered couples without damage to society. Sadly, the “marriage equality” crowd won’t stop until society not only redefines what a marriage is, but assigns penalties and sanctions against anyone who declines to join in agreement. “Tolerance” has its limits.
The drumbeat of calls for the Republican Party to moderate its stances on things, to make nice with the Obama cult, to try to understand the changes in American society from the days when the Gipper rode “El Alamein” at Rancho de Cielo, continues. If only the Grand Old Party would become enlightened, a little less grand and a little less old, all would be well the party might even pick up a few votes.
If Mrs. Thatcher were here, we suspect she would cast a wary ear against such talk, having declared “the lady’s not for turning” to her own “wets.” President Reagan would no doubt offer a crying towel, too.
Whatever happens to marriage the Supreme Court has yet to have its say most of the issues dear to Republicans are attuned to those of most Americans. If Americans really want jobs, better schools and a growing economy, the Republican message of low taxation, fewer regulations and how to create jobs is what they need to hear. Set the economy free, and tax revenues will come.
The thinking left knows in its heart of hearts that the conservative values that built America into the world’s powerhouse will work again. The only way the left can forestall its own demise is to persuade Republicans chagrined by two consecutive presidential defeats to surrender without the good fight. If Republican leaders quit, they and not the base of the party will answer to history.
The Washington Times
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