[Mb-civic] IMPORTANT: How the GOP Lost Its Way - Craig Shirley - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

How the GOP Lost Its Way
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By Craig Shirley
The Washington Post
Saturday, April 22, 2006; A21

The immigration reform debate has highlighted a long-standing fissure in 
the GOP between the elitist Rockefeller business wing and the party's 
conservative populist base. Whether the two groups can continue to 
coexist and preserve the Republican majority is increasingly doubtful as 
conservatives begin to consider -- and in some cases cheer -- the 
possibility that the GOP may lose control of Congress this fall.

The two camps are deeply divided. The business elites are interested in 
a large supply of cheap labor and support unfettered immigration and 
open borders. The populist base supports legal immigration but is 
concerned about lawlessness on our border, national sovereignty and the 
real security threat posed by porous borders.

There is nothing new about this division. It is a 40-year-old fight that 
has its roots in the cultural, economic, regional and ideological 
differences between the two camps. Still, most conservatives felt that 
after the victory of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Revolution of 1994 
their point was made and the country-clubbers would know their place. 
They were wrong. The Rockefeller wing is now attempting to reassert its 
control over the party and is openly hostile toward the Reagan populists 
who created the Republican majority in the first place.

Major Republicans have taken to attacking others within their own party 
as unsophisticated nativists. In a recent Wall Street Journal column, 
former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie warned 
populists to cease and desist from promoting "border enforcement first" 
legislation. "Anti-immigration rhetoric is a political siren song, and 
Republicans must resist its lure," he said. And in a recent editorial, 
the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol attacked populist Republicans for not 
recognizing the danger of "turning the GOP into an anti-immigration, 
Know-Nothing party."

Conservatives see this kind of rhetoric as inflammatory, 
anti-intellectual and offensive. Far from being driven by xenophobia and 
intolerance, conservative populists are motivated by a profound respect 
for the rule of law and by a patriotic regard for America's sovereignty 
and national security. Upholding the rule of law and protecting our 
country's borders is important to conservative populists and to most 
Americans.

To make their argument, some establishment Republicans are invoking 
Ronald Reagan's name. In fact, Reagan argued that it was our 
government's duty to "humanely regain control of our borders and thereby 
preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people: 
American citizenship." Reagan was pro-legal immigration, pro-patriotic 
assimilation and in step with other populist conservatives.

The Republican Party is now unraveling. Sept. 11, 2001, and the war on 
terrorism stanched a lot of wounds inside the party, but resentment is 
growing over steel tariffs, prescription drug benefits, a League of 
Nations mentality, the growth of government and harebrained spending, 
the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, the increasing regulation of 
political speech in the United States and endemic corruption. On top of 
all the scandals, it has just come to light that the RNC paid millions 
in legal bills to defend operative James Tobin, who was convicted with 
associates in an illegal phone-jamming scheme aimed at preventing New 
Hampshire Democrats from voting. In doing so, the GOP appears to 
sanction and institutionalize corruption within the party.

The elites in the GOP have never understood conservatives or Reagan; 
they've found both to be a bit tacky. They have always found the 
populists' commitment to values unsettling. To them, adherence to 
conservative principles was always less important than wealth and power.

Unfortunately, the GOP has lost its motivating ideals. The revolution of 
1994 has been killed not by zeal but by a loss of faith in its own 
principles. The tragedy is not that we are faced with another fight for 
the soul of the Republican Party but that we have missed an opportunity 
to bring a new generation of Americans over to our point of view.

All agree that the Democrats are feckless and without a plan or agenda. 
But most Americans are now presented with a choice between two parties 
that are both addicted to power -- the Democrats to government power and 
Republicans to corporate and governmental power. Who speaks for Main 
Street Reaganism?

It was the populists under Reagan, and later under Newt Gingrich, who 
energized the party, gave voice to a maturing conservative ideology and 
swept Republicans into power. We would be imprudent and forgetful to 
disregard this. But it may be too late, because conservatives don't want 
to be part of the looming train wreck. They know that this is no longer 
Ronald Reagan's party.

Craig Shirley, of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, is the author of 
"Reagan's Revolution," a book about the 1976 campaign, and is now 
writing "Rendezvous With Destiny" about the successful 1980 campaign. 
His firm has clients concerned with immigration issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042101593.html
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