DeTocqueville.US

Newt Gingrich is wrong in supporting Dede Scozzafava in the New York Congressional district 23 race. Of course, a lot of my fellow conservatives have been saying this for a while, so that might seem kind of obvious. And certainly there are some very obvious reasons why conservatives should oppose Scozzafava, as so many of her views are way outside of what Republicans are supposed to stand for. So there is definitely a good reason just based on who Scozzafava is for conservatives to oppose her as the Republican candidate.

Gingrich is also wrong about the practical (i.e. partisan) reasons for supporting Scozzafava and other candidates like her. He says (to paraphrase) that supporting liberal Republican candidates helps our majorities in Congress and will help Republicans effect their ideals in Washington. This is ridiculous for two reasons. First, (as Rush Limbaugh and others have pointed out) liberal Republicans won’t be voting for conservative ideas that they don’t hold (cf. Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, et al); instead we will be giving liberal Democrats more votes and the veneer of bipartisanship. Second, doing things just for the party continues the culture of corruption that pervades both parties. It is an attitude that puts the “good” of the party before our ideals. Gingrich and others forget that political parties only exist because of common ideals; a party with too big a tent doesn’t really have a reason to exist beyond continuing its own existence.

I believe, however, that there is a more important reason that Gingrich and others like him are wrong about support liberal Republicans. Many people have said that the Republican party has to understand the voters in different constituencies and run candidates that can pander to them. The argument goes something like this: people in the northeast are liberal, so we have to run liberals to get their vote.

This worries me greatly for one big reason: it relinquishes the party’s responsibility for persuading people. It says, “Don’t try to convince people you’re right, just try to get their vote.” This is not the way to do things. If people don’t agree with us, we shouldn’t just give up. We have to persuade them, show them how our ideas can help them achieve their goals. If we want their vote, we have to show them that our plans will make their lives better.

Persuading voters in this way is certainly more difficult; it requires a lot more work. But this is why conservatives around the country must work one-on-one with people and explain conservative ideas to them. It must be a local movement, and it must ignore the “leaders” in the Republican party who, like Gingrich, attempt a defeatist attitude of giving in to leftism.