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Republican stalwarts are fond of recalling the 1992 Democrat National Convention, and the manner in which Bob Casey Sr., the Governor of Pennsylvania, was prevented from giving a speech on account of his strident pro-life views. Here was the incontrovertible proof that Democrats censor and oppress those who do not toe the party line.

What is rarely recalled is that, four years later in the Republican National Convention, the official party policy was to avoid any mention whatsoever of the entire abortion issue. GOP candidate Bob Dole sought to sidestep controversy that party insiders feared might be overly "divisive," since that is how the major media and the Democrats portrayed defining moral issues such as abortion. With the conservative base thoroughly dispirited by this and a host of similar actions, Dole lost that race, leaving the Republicans to flounder for another four years.

Dole's fate was consistent with the pattern of Republican presidential candidates and their regard for conservatism in general. Those who boldly and unabashedly carried the conservative "torch" have done well, while any who attempt to "move to the center" and "find common ground" with the left will be abandoned by conservative voters. John McCain, while claiming to do both, succeeded at neither. And his electoral results proved it.

Herein lies the picture of a losing Republican "strategy" to which its liberal members doggedly cling, despite results that have been consistently disastrous over the years. Every attempt to water down the GOP platform, in a futile quest to widen its appeal, has had exactly the opposite effect. Seeking to portray themselves as standing for everything, such self-serving party insiders are rightly recognized as standing for nothing.

Nevertheless, an infuriatingly effective ruse from media liberals and Democrat political hacks has been to convince congressional Republicans to "moderate" (read: accommodate the liberal agenda). When voters exhibit their outrage by abandoning such Republicans at the polls, those same Democrats assert loudly that the party is still "too conservative" and thus needs to drink more of the poison that has been killing it. Cowardice, whether in day to day life or in the political arena, is by definition easy to manipulate. Thus the most timid Republicans can be counted upon to follow this lead.

Arlen Specter's recent official abandonment of the Republican Party (as opposed to the unofficial manner in which he has been doing so for years) provides a powerful case in point. Since Specter made his announcement to switch to the Democrats, liberal activists such as James Carville have predictably insisted that the move represents undeniable proof of an excessively narrow governing philosophy among the Republicans. Thus, we are told, the only winning strategy is for the GOP to move even further left, in order to accommodate the likes of Specter.

"Conventional wisdom," stubbornly promoted by the ruling class on both sides of the aisle, insists that the ultimate purpose of a political party is to get its members elected to office. In truth, such a notion represents defining evidence of a party in decline. The founding purpose of a political party is always to advance a particular set of ideas. The chances of those ideas being adopted as public policy will increase with greater popular support and the strength that lies in numbers, a party is established to move the particular banner forward.

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