Back to Basics, Conservative Style

Eric Florack has decided that the founding manifesto of the National Review, written in 1955, is an appropriate statement of the conservative and libertarian principles that should guide the Republican Party. It is certainly clear about its positions, and, in fact, might be a better program than the current melange of anti-tax fanaticism, medieval superstition, worship of greed, and fear of honest negotiation that characterizes the Republican Party in Congress and in the country. That the GOP's leadership is insufficiently conservative may be doubted. That it lacks a coherent program is, however, apparent.

However, like many "movement" conservatives, Mr. Florack forgets that the purpose of a political party is to do exactly what he faults the Republican leadership for doing: to get elected. In fact, a political party's only purpose should be to construct a program that commands the support of a majority of the people, so that it can enact that program when in power. The manifesto opposes bipartisanship, but by opposing everything, and cooperating in nothing, the Republican Party has merely rendered itself irrelevant to the government of the country.