Back to Basics

As popular as Rush Limbaugh is, don't forget his younger brother.

David Limbaugh offers some advice to the GOP.

While I stand by my contention the Democratic Party is intellectually and morally bankrupt, I'll concede Republicans are floundering right now. Ideologically, this is a center-right nation, and yet Republicans lost at the polls. Democrats are going to continue being who they are, but Republicans need to come home.
It's true our congressional losses were not unusual for a midterm election, especially in the president's second term. But if the party had stuck to its principles, it wouldn't have sustained such losses. Republicans need to find their voice again, and well before the 2008 elections -- which will be a formidable challenge.
Before addressing the points of conflict, let's consider the principles upon which most Republicans agree. Most agree on lower taxes, lower spending, less government regulation, a strong national defense and originalist judges. Our elected Republican representatives haven't always lived up to these principles, but they remain our principles.
Unfortunately the intraparty differences are many and growing in intensity. The issue of immigration is particularly divisive. Wall Street Journal conservatives are militantly open-borders. They seem to view border-control advocates with an elitist disdain, attributing their views to a nativist, xenophobic strain. The border-control activists resent the mischaracterization of their passion to preserve our sovereignty and unique American culture as racist. Many of them see the open-borders policy of the elite as wrongheaded naivete at best and economic idolatry at worst.

The Republicans don't have much time to get their act together. They are the party of ideas. Now is the time to begin presenting them coherently.