CNN: Tea Parties And Sarah Palin Are “Driving Moderates Out Of The GOP”
And the spin continues:
On Monday’s AC360, CNN’s Anderson Cooper forwarded the media’s new talking point about the New York 23 congressional race, that “Tea Party protesters and other conservative voices are…driving moderates out of the GOP.” Correspondent Tom Foreman continued on this note, stating that “angry conservatives…[are] forcing the party to choose between…its base and attracting more moderate Americans.”
Cooper led the 10 pm Eastern hour of his program with the question, “Does the Republican Party have room for moderates?” The anchor outlined that “state and local elections tomorrow may have profound national effects, and President Obama and Sarah Palin are a big part of it. Two governor’s races may test the President’s ability to get others elected or turn into a referendum on his presidency.” He continued with the media’s new spin on the electoral contests, as if it was a matter of fact: “As for Sarah Palin, she, Tea Party protesters and other conservative voices are front and center, driving moderates out of the GOP.”
The liberals are defining this debate over “moderates” in the GOP in the way that’s most convenient for them. Namely, that extremist hard-liners are driving all the reasonable people out of the party.
But that’s not what’s really going on. Instead, what’s happening is that a group of people who believe that the GOP should stand for and adhere to a set of limited government principles are rejecting the notion that we have to compromise those principles for political expediency. Put another way, the tea party movement and people like Sarah Palin believe that rather than trying to win-elections by being more like liberals we should win elections by converting people to conservatism.
Obviously there’s some debate about whether or not that’s good for the GOP. Certainly the path of political expediency is also the path of least resistance. But in the long run, educating voters about conservatism will pay more dividends then betraying the party platform whenever it’s convenient.
This isn’t about a move toward extremism, though for liberals who believe that limiting government and encouraging more individual independence is extremism it no doubt looks that way, but rather about redefining what the GOP stands for.
