Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org"People are saying the future of the Republican Party will be shaped by John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Arnold." -- Maria Shriver, Vanity Fair, January, 2005
Have you ever seen a team win a world series or national championship and then return to the clubhouse scratching their heads, pondering how they need to "change"?
Liberal Republicans are in denial. Conservative presidents like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan have racked up the largest margins of victory in the history of our nation. But, still liberals like Arnold Schwarzenegger argue we must change to accomodate five percent of voters who believe we are "too religious" or "too conservative."
The Schwarzenegger "let's talk and act like the liberals" approach has been tried by another liberal Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. It failed miserably.
Rev. Louis P. Sheldon makes the case that traditional values won the election for George Bush. This may disappoint liberal Republicans. But it is a great moment for America and the all the handwringing by liberal Republicans won't change that.
The future of the Republican party has already been "shaped" by the great victories of its two most pro-life and pro-marriage presidents, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Any new effort to "shape" the party so that it abandons its commitment to the sanctity of life and traditional marriage will amount to turning away from victory and pursuing defeat by adopting the rejected ideas of the defeated liberals of both parties.
We thought you would appreciate this thoughtful article by Rev. Sheldon published in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times.
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############## Lou's Editorial ###############
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Hey, Governor, the GOP Won
Schwarzenegger is blind to the values mandate in urging a broader party.
By Louis P. Sheldon
December 29, 2004
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a German newspaper this month that the Republican Party needs to "cross the center line" — that is, to slide toward the left. He couldn't be more wrong — and more disloyal to real Republicanism.
The comment made it clear he's part of the only group more disappointed than the Democrats with last month's election results: liberal Republicans.
They desperately want to ignore the Bush values victory and the passage of pro-marriage initiatives in 11 states. Backed by a chorus of liberal pundits, these Republicans engaged in preelection hand-wringing about the "extremism" of religious people in their party and the dominance of something called "the religious right." They predicted a certain Bush defeat and a civil war within the Republican big tent.
None of their dreary predictions proved true. But that hasn't stopped them from making more misguided predictions, primarily that the future success of the Republican Party lies in emulating the freshly defeated Democrats.
Schwarzenegger told the German newspaper that Republicans reach "from the right to the center" and that "I'd like the Republican Party to cross that center line," saying that if it did, it could take 5% of votes from Democrats. Of course, the governor is playing zero-sum politics by assuming that such a shift would not cause conservative Republicans to stay home.
The governor, however, should look at the example of another liberal Republican, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. In the last election cycle, Romney followed the Schwarzenegger victory formula to the letter. He helped bankroll a field of more than 120 mostly liberal Republican candidates to run as a "reform" slate against incumbent state legislators. Not one of these candidates mentioned the word "abortion" and, if you can believe this, in Massachusetts of all places, no Romney-endorsed candidate talked about homosexual marriage. That is the equivalent of running for office in Iowa and not mentioning farming.
Romney's candidates lost. All of them.
Now I know Schwarzenegger has friends and even family in Massachusetts. A simple phone call to one of them would confirm two things: Mostly liberal Republicans running against mostly liberal Democrats mostly lost, and pro-life, pro-marriage candidates — Democrat and Republican — won.
And if liberal Republicans need further convincing, they should observe what is occurring in the Democrat Party. Before the election, Democrats treated members of their party who favored traditional values as lepers, refusing to allow them full participation. But November's election changed all of that.
Kristin Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, recounted to a reporter this week that during the last campaign she was frustrated by her inability to persuade the Democrat National Committee to list her group on its website. But many of the staff members of DNC candidates are now contacting her to discuss pro-life Democrats. "We're very encouraged," she told the Boston Globe. "I think people are starting to wake up and say we can't alienate this whole wing of our party."
And the recent election even had a calming effect on former presidential candidate Howard Dean. "I have long believed that we ought to make a home for pro-life Democrats," Dean said on NBC's "Meet the Press" this month. "We can have a respectful dialogue, and we have to stop demagoguing this issue."
Some Democrats have at least clearly reached the conclusion that they didn't lose the election because they weren't liberal enough.
If the election had somehow turned into a repudiation of traditional values, then I could understand if Schwarzenegger tried to convince us the defeat was due to "not being liberal enough." But traditional values won, and still the governor insists that Republicans abandon the positions that won them votes.
Religious conservatives in California have been skeptical but hopeful as we have watched Schwarzenegger attempt to govern. But Schwarzenegger has shown he is a liberal. He is more committed to liberalism than he is to traditional Republican principles or the success of his party.
Perhaps the family dinners in Hyannisport are less contentious than we have been told.
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