It's The Philosophy Stupid

by Matt Latimer at HumanEvents.com

   Recently New York Times designated conservative columnist, David Brooks, advised Republican candidates to avoid talking about their “conservative bona fides." Instead, Mr. Brooks wrote, Republicans should talk about other things, like balanced budgets and small business-led job creation. Mr. Brooks didn’t seem to understand that economic prosperity and job growth are not distinct from conservative principles. They are the result of them.  This sort of muddle qualifies as cutting edge conservative thought in today’s New York Times.'…

   Nearly three decades ago, the "move to the middle" moderates lived in fear that an unelectable right winger like Ronald Reagan might win the party's nomination. Their view was famously captured by a liberal historian who said that Reagan's selection proved that Republican voters "had a death wish." Instead we had a revolution.
   After the Reagan years ended, the "sensible centrists" of the party retook control, guiding the party to a repudiation of Reaganism in favor of something “kinder” and “gentler.” That apparently meant support for higher taxes, a failure to articulate a conservative vision, and the ushering in of the Clinton presidency. Republicans returned to the wilderness and minority status again. Then Newt Gingrich and his conservative revolutionaries challenged the “middle of the road” party leadership and enunciated a conservative philosophy that led to a massive electoral victory in 1994. …

…We can’t defeat Chuck Schumer or Blanche Lincoln or Harry Reid in 2010 by promising just to manage the welfare state a little better, or to keep federal spending in tact but just spend a little less. We know the road to victory is not to pretend to be Democrats-lite.  To longtime Human Events readers, the struggle ahead for the party is really just the same old story.  But as Margaret Thatcher once put it, “Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”  It is time for conservatives who understand those truths to retake the party once again.  It is the only way to have a lasting Republican resurgence.

Read the entire article here…