The American Spectator

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Streetcar Line

(Page 2 of 2)

OH, WAIT, EXCUSE ME, I went off track. I was listing the things conservatives believe in, and I somehow found myself talking about what Republicans in power have done. Those are two separate things: conservatives, and Republicans in power. Conservatives have reason to support those Republicans only to the extent that the Republicans serve conservative ends, or if the fall of those Republicans will drag down conservatives with them.

Back in 1960, Barry Goldwater famously told conservatives to "grow up." He said our time would come. He was right -- but it took 20 years. And it took a unique conservative leader, with unique skills and unique appeals, to bring our movement to fruition.

We do not have the luxury of waiting 20 more years. Our society is in peril right now. We must rebuild quickly.

As we rebuild, we must do what conservatives of an earlier generation did. Build from the ground up -- as did people like Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie and Morton Blackwell, and Cliff White and Bill Rusher, and Ed Feulner, and Stan Evans, and Phyllis Schlafly, and others too numerous to mention -- at the same time we try to find people at the very top to serve as our standard-bearers.

If we think that all will be well if we merely find the right presidential candidate, we are sadly mistaken. And we are equally mistaken if we think that grassroots development and organization and training alone will solve our problems, absent candidates such as Reagan backed by an "opportunity society" led by a Kemp and a Gingrich, a young Lott, a Bob Walker, a Vin Weber, and a Dan Lungren.

The way to rebuild quickly is to work both from the bottom up and from the top down, simultaneously. The truth is that the left is so outlandish that we really ought to be winning these days, and winning big. The fact that we instead are losing big is empirical evidence that the taste of power made us forget where it is that we are supposed to be going.

Use power on behalf of principles, rather than vice versa, and we can rebuild in a lot less than 20 years. But we must begin now.

More in future weeks...

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