In the midst of the Republican Party’s highly publicized denials of an internal crisis, the reasons for their predicament have been lost. The debate, rather than centering on what happened and what is to be done, has become a public relations campaign of who’s going to win the next election.

The situation could still have a favorable outcome – if the establishment elite begin to truthfully acknowledge what’s wrong and how to fix it, rather than trying to manipulate voters through contrived imagery and denial.

The problem is based upon two flaws that are becoming dangerously fundamental to the structure of the party. The first is elitism – too many of the party’s top officials don’t care about adhering to the wishes of their constituents. They simply want to increase their own power and prestige. Rather than seeking “citizen legislators,” they’d prefer to run the party themselves. They’ve established a seamless system of bureaucracies and committees, over which they have full control.

The second dilemma is their liberal socialism. Many people may not mind the increasingly efficient dictatorship that their party has become, except that it’s advocating for one of the largest governments in the history of the earth.

These complaints were voiced at a recent forum hosted by the libertarian Cato Institute. Andrew Sullivan and Bruce Bartlett, a former aide for Ronald Reagan, lamented the economic socialism of the current president. Sullivan asserted, "He's a socialist in so many respects, a Christian socialist."

Their complaints were dismissed, however, by many commentators. A writer on Hugh Hewitt’s Website wrote that they couldn’t be considered legitimate conservatives: “The Cato Institute is… libertarian, not conservative, and as such, attracts a more libertarian crowd, which is naturally more critical of the President.” Evidently, Reagan’s aides aren’t legitimate spokesmen for conservatism. The same commentator referenced another site that listed a second reason for ignoring Bartlett and Sullivan: “People forget that George Bush has never cast himself as a hardline conservative and especially not as a libertarian.”

Evidently, when faced with the complaint that Bush isn’t a conservative, Republicans respond with “You’re right,” then act as if they’ve offered a rebuttal sufficient to satiate their critics.

In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been suffering from the same unhappiness emanating from his own constituents. One Republican consultant said Schwarzenegger shouldn’t worry, however, because “It's like a little boy dragging a dead cat around by the tail. After a while the thrill wears off.” Instead of addressing the issues at stake, the consultant simply denied that there was a problem, and used an analogy that compared conservatives to little boys.

In New York, the Republican establishment has been struggling to find someone to run against Hillary Clinton. Yonkers mayor John Spencer is running, but he’s anti-abortion. The party would rather run a proponent of abortion, because it would take an issue away from Hillary Clinton. To the establishment elite, that’s more important than publicizing conservative ideals.

The latest arrival to the New York race is Kathleen McFarland, a former Pentagon official who stopped working for the government in 1985. She decided to run for the Senate when her campaign for the House began looking bleak. She explained her beliefs in one written memo: "I believe in a woman's right to choose, stem-cell research and full civil rights for gays. Our family worships in the Episcopal Church, but we are not evangelical.” State Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno responded by calling her "a very, very high-type lady."

Spencer observed of the party and media’s glowing coverage of McFarland, "All these candidates have come and gone and yet they still treat me like I haven't done anything."

Whenever I write in defense of a more conservative Republican Party, some editors refuse to run my articles. They don’t want to acknowledge the corruption of their party. Instead of allowing debate, they try to squelch it, and through contrived imagery, they want to act as though nothing is happening. As Bartlett himself observed, "[Republicans] are reticent to address the issues that I've raised for fear that they might have to agree with them." So long as this phenomenon of denial exists, the party will continue to spiral into oblivion.

Nazi death camp survivor Viktor E. Frankl once wrote, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Republicans could respond to the situation with truthfulness, openness and humility – or they can continue in the spirit of “deny everything.” The prior choice will lead to their growth and our freedom. The latter scenario will lead to this nation’s downfall.

Rudy Takala is seventeen years old and was homeschooled for nine years. He is working on a book about public education.




(1). Consultant Quote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060225/pl_nm/schwarzenegger_dc_2

(2). NY Senate Race: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--senate-republican0307mar07,0,6651481.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

(3). Sullivan and Bartlett: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701403_pf.html

(4). Hewitt Blog: http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2006/03/05-week/index.php#a001568