The NY-23 race has political commentators abuzz: Is there a Republican civil war going on? If so, who started it, and can there be a truce? If not, why is everyone saying there is one? National Review Online asked a few close observers of the Right to report in on these rumors of war.
KEN BLACKWELL
Dede Scozzafava’s record in the New York State legislature was pro-tax, pro-abortion, and anti-marriage. She even accepted the endorsement of ACORN. But she got the local party elders’ support, based on nothing other than their calculated desire to maintain partisan supremacy, regardless of conviction.
Doug Hoffman’s defeat was not about forcing the Republican party to take an “extreme” position. Hoffman was and is clearly in line with the GOP national platforms that gave Ronald Reagan national leadership victories. Reagan, it should be remembered, was the last Republican to carry New York State for president — and he did so twice.
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President Lincoln once said, “moral principle is all that unites us.” The Republican party is not a private club with an admissions test but rather a coalition built on principle. GOP leaders can’t stiff-arm their conservative grassroots and expect not to have a fight for the soul of the party. Dede’s effort was not about party-building or coalition politics. It was about political suicide or death.
Sometimes a little bloodletting can save an ill party’s life. Conservatives have contributed to a GOP mid-course correction. We will take the seat back next year a stronger party.
— Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state, is a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union.RORY COOPERWhile pundits may say the NY-23 race pitted one conservative faction against another, it simply is not the case. Conservatism has never been stronger, or more unified. The war isn’t among the Right but against the disastrous habits of the Left, and one dysfunctional race won’t change that.
Poll after poll shows that the conservative philosophy is more popular than ever, crossing party lines. Even President Obama did his best to run as a center-right candidate in 2008. He promised to address jobs, a necessary war in Afghanistan, even a tax cut. These are conservative principles, and voters are now seeing the difference between rhetoric and reality. The Left yearns for conflict on the Right, so their moderate members aren’t tempted to vote their conscience. We cannot fall into that trap.
