How Republicans Can Build a Big-Tent Party [Jim DeMint]

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 2009-05-02

[rabscuttle385]

It's the Democrats who won't tolerate a diversity of views.

BY JIM DEMINT

Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together?

In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are right to remind conservatives that they cannot build a center-right coalition without the center part. And conservatives are right to remind moderates that Republicans only succeed when we rally around clear principles.

The real mistake is that Republicans became more concerned with staying in D.C. than reforming it.

Despite notable successes at both ends of Pennsylvania Ave., it seems to me that Republicans in Congress and in the Bush administration forgot a simple truth. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if you aim for principled reform, you win elections in the bargain; if you just aim for elections, you get neither.

[rabscuttle385]

To win back the trust of the American people, we must be a "big tent" party. But big tents need strong poles, and the strongest pole of our party -- the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats -- must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can't agree on that, elections are the least of our problems.

A political party cannot be all things to all people.
It must represent certain fundamental beliefs
which must not be compromised to political expediency
or simply to swell its numbers.
RONALD REAGAN

We don't intend to turn the Republican Party
over to the traitors in the battle just ended.
We will have no more of those candidates
who are pledged to the same goals
as our opposition and who seek our support.
Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates
wouldn’t make any sense at all.
RONALD REAGAN

What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
PATRICK HENRY

[rabscuttle385]

I don't know how this op-ed didn't get posted. I searched and could not find it on FR!

Anyways, DeMint and Coburn just tied for #1 in the Senate in the 2008 RLC Liberty Index, while Paul got #1 in the House.

[GeronL]

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if you aim for principled reform, you win elections in the bargain; if you just aim for elections, you get neither

Can we rebuild him? Can we make him faster? stronger? Better?

Que theme music for Six Million Dollar Man ((back when $6M was a lot of money))

[gwilhelm56]

Once they are CONVERTED To FREEDOM, LIBERTY, THEN PACK THEM IN... we’ll increase the tent size LATER

What good it increasing GOP membership numbers.. if the Increases think like Limpwrist Grahamnesty or Olympia Snowejob!!. pr even JUAN McLAME

[SierraWasp]

My goodness... What a fantastic comment/reply!!!

Beautiful indeed!!!

[aliquando]

Na na na na na na...... (the bionic noise)

[EternalVigilance]

Sorry Senator DeMint. Unlike yourself, I don’t call baby-killing liberals “moderate.” And I have no interest in being in coalition with them.

[EternalVigilance]

I’ve been trying to figure this guy out for awhile. This op-ed goes a long ways towards helping me understand the mindset that would lead him to endorse the most liberal Governor in US history, Mitt Romney, for President.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Moderating and pandering to groups of people aren’t the ways to grow the party. The Republican party will have to accept and embrace Conservatism if it’s ever going to find itself viable ever again. The GOP is run by RINO’s, and it will continue to lose elections from here on out. Conservatives will step up to the plate and show the RINO’s how it’s done.

[Just mythoughts]

It was the ‘big tent’ GOP that downsized itself into golden TARP!

[Fee]

If any party say freedom and liberty, but lets Wall Street get away with the shenanigans they pulled off recently will lose.
If any party say freedom and liberty, and let corporate America offshore our jobs and technologies to foreign competitors and strategic enemies will lose.
If any party say freedom and liberty, and allow corporations to undermind immigration laws and abuse the foreign hi tech visas progam will lose.
If any party say freedom and liberty, and lets reverse discrimination via affirmative action and one way hate crime laws remain will lose.
Unlike the prosperous past, Americans will not tolerate Wall Street/Politician/Political Correctness BS anymore. If any political party embraces any of it will lose. If Dems and GOP cannot meet the standards, a third party will arise in America and the fed up voters will not care if it believes in liberty, facism or communism, it it meets those requirements it will be in power before the end of the 21st Century. Right now with real unemployment approaching 17 plus percent, 401k plans gone, homes underwater, taxes/fees going up, and no jobs, people on Main Street are real fed up.

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah, no kidding.

This piece stinks. But I’m glad he wrote it. I now know everything about DeMint that matters.

[pallis]

The vision that can save America right now isn’t a liberally moderate one. Considering how quickly the socialist vision is destroying us, it’s difficult to understand where the Republican Party intends to go with moderation of the same bad ideas. It’s time to wake up, and salvage liberty while we can.

[kingu]

Wall Street can do what they do because of regulations - the insistence that the US Government stands behind them. End it. Not just no more bailouts, but dump all federal regulation of Wall Street. Strip away their immunities that are granted through this bogus regulation, let them get brought up on criminal charges in state courts for conspiracy, fraud, and theft. It is this false sense of security granted through ‘regulation’ that draws people to these games of chance. We don't need stricter control of Wall Street, we need to end the controls that we've put in that created this mess in the first place.

Off-shoring jobs? Wonder who's fault that is... Let's see - Over regulation of labor, of ‘environmental’ controls, and of course, the US consumer who doesn't give a rip where their iPod is made, just wants to know how much the new one will hold of their MP3 collection. And speaking of MP3’s - limit patents and copyright to 10 years - you won't see songs selling for $1 each, you'll see them down to pennies, or at least reasonable licensing for vast music libraries. It is the regulation that fuels the piracy market. If you can't make money within 10 years, then someone else deserves a crack at it, and you should get to work on something new.

End all hate crimes. If you get kicked repeatedly by a group of thugs, does it matter why they did it? Equality in justice means all are punished the same for the same crime. Racial equality will never come if all aren't treated equally before the law.

But none of this will come about, because it requires strength of conviction, and everyone is locked into a never-ending loop of pandering for votes.

[Semper Mark]

"A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers." RONALD REAGAN

or simply to swell it's numbers. Those who pretend to claim Reagan's legacy but refuse to adhere to his own words can STFU. Some on this site would rather replace Southern born American citizens with foreign illegal invaders to swell their voting block. You know who you are. Ronald Reagan said that you're damned fool.

Ronaldus Magnus: RINO HUNTER SUPREME.

[gwilhelm56]

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PROPER PC DISCLAIMERS...
LOoks like LIB TALKING POINTS FOR THE WEEK

Geez

[gwilhelm56]

Thank you for countermanding the idiots talking points.. FR Has to really find a way to keep LIberal WHINERS from signing up!

[staytrue]

Demint says we lost the election because of lack of principles.

I say you win elections with peace and prosperity and instead we had war and near economic ruin.

[lentulusgracchus]

Like your rhinoceros poster. Veddy veddy good!

[upchuck]

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