Sound Principle, Sound Politics

If people want a Democrat, they'll vote for a real one. Republicans must offer a meaningful choice.

by Rod D. Martin
August 14, 1998

Spending a good bit of time in the company of political folk, I hear their concerns, and the past few weeks have been especially full of advice. It is eleven weeks before an election, and the carping has begun: conservatives, they say -- and especially conservative Christians -- need to tone it down.

By "tone it down," of course, they mean "shut up." The so-called "moderate," exemplified by New Jersey's Christian-bashing Christie Whitman, simply reels at the thought of mixing politics and ideology, particularly of a religious bent. They marvel at voters who will oppose them simply because of an issue, be it Second Amendment rights or conservative tax policy or -- above all others -- abortion. They are certain that elections are won on personality and money, that issues are largely unimportant, and that anyone who will go to the mat for a strongly-held belief is a dangerous demagogue.

In short, they are tolerant of everything but principle; and moreover, ha…