Gop Conservatives?

The Washington Times › December 01, 2005

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Summary

In "GOP and the conservative movement" (Nov. 24, Commentary), William Rusher offers an interesting simile of the "Republican Party as a bottle, and the conservative movement as the wine it contains" and finishes by saying that their union has been "remarkably fruitful." Apropos indeed, but only when one realizes that once a conservative enters the bottle, he is exposed to the corrosive effects of big-government Republican pols such as Rep. Tom DeLay, who, by all accounts, wasted little time overriding junior lawmakers' complaints about pork in the budget. Few conservatives (Rep. Ron Paul of Texas comes to mind) remain unscathed.

Further, when Mr. Rusher says "remarkably fruitful," he can only mean that the Republican-conservative union has unprecedented power, because he certainly cannot mean that true conservative principles are being advanced. With very few exceptions, they are not. In the course of an otherwise engaging history lesson, Mr. Rusher doesn't enumerate the core principles of the Republican Party or the conservative movement. What those principles are seems to depend on whether you judge by words or by actions.