Townhall
The GOP's Identity Crisis
By David Limbaugh
Jul 02, 2013 

As one who supports traditional values and a conservative political agenda, I'm more worried about the right wing's erosion of resolve and moral courage than I am about the left's relentless assault on our values and ideas. 

Surely, no one can dispute that the political left has been tirelessly chipping away at America's foundational values for years and ruthlessly demonizing conservatives. But if Republicans truly believed in themselves and fought with the same conviction as Democrats, it would be a different story. 

One might attribute the attrition of America's foundational institutions to the political application of the laws of entropy. Things just have a natural tendency to descend into chaos. Great empires and great nations can't last forever. But it has to be more than that. When those who claim to want to preserve this nation's greatness all but throw in the towel, the destructive process can't help but accelerate. 

How can a political party remain viable when many of its leaders are obviously ashamed of major parts of its platform? When its leaders validate negative stereotypes by promising to change? 

When he was running for his first presidential term, George W. Bush said that he was a "compassionate conservative" and that he wouldn't balance the budget "on the backs of the poor." As much as I admire President Bush, I regret those statements, as they communicated the false message that ordinary conservatives aren't compassionate and that we don't have a heart for the downtrodden. 

Some of Bush's former advisers are still wagging their fingers at conservatives today for their alleged mean-spiritedness on many issues, including immigration, urging them to be more winsome or loving -- or something, anything but conservative. 

Regrettably, Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus told Latinos in Chicago that Republicans have reshaped their outreach. "In America, it doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you're going," said Priebus.

What? The Republican Party has always stood for equal opportunity and articulated a nondiscriminatory, pro-growth message. Why would the party's leader thus validate Democratic slanders portraying the GOP as nativist? 

Why couldn't he have said instead, "Democrats will tell you that we don't care about Hispanics, but the truth is we care about all people, and our policies are geared toward unleashing robust opportunities for all… 

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