Through CQ Politics today I caught Senator Jim DeMint’s Saturday Wall Street Journal piece about the future of the Republican Party. One of the party’s most conservative voices in the Senate makes an important overture to moderate Republicans who Arlen Specter’s defection.
DeMint ties Republican failures to the Bush administration and the Republicans most closely allied with them – a likely preview for what Specter faces in his upcoming primary and general election. He also frames the Republican argument very succinctly as the pursuit of freedom.
I’ve heard this before, from one of the GOP’s most liberal voices, Rudy Giuliani, who at the 2004 Republican Convention said the Republican Party was “at its best” when extending the cause of freedom.
Aside from being an easy message for unity, Senator DeMint’s train of thought states exactly what the Republican Party is for – rather than what it is against. Complaining about spending and a growing federal government makes it very clear what a politician is against, but it doesn’t give an alternative; championing the cause of freedom offers voters a clearer choice.
Jim Eltringham 