GOP Must Stay True to Core Values

I noted yesterday that the future of the GOP lies in packaging an attractive message that combines traditional social policy concerns with an economic message the rings true with the stressed middle class.

In an essay at today's Wall Street Journal, Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention, makes the best case I've seen so far for the conservative path from the wilderness:

To regain a majority, Republicans must embrace core values with such conviction that Americans will welcome where Republicans will lead them in the future.

The first core value must be a pro-life agenda. Republicans must advocate for all life from conception to natural death. This is the decent thing to do. And there were 70 million white Evangelical voters on Election Day, 74% of whom voted for John McCain. The vast majority voted pro-life, not Republican. If the GOP turns away from a pro-life agenda, they will turn away from the GOP.

Evangelicals, a quarter of the electorate, cannot determine elections by themselves. Without them, however, Republicans face electoral oblivion.

A second core value must be a pro-family agenda. This agenda must include tax policies that revalue child-rearing (doubling the dependent child deduction, for example) and eliminating the marriage tax penalty. It should also promote parental school choice -- empowering all parents to make the choices concerning their children's education that currently only affluent parents are empowered to make.

Pro-life and pro-family agendas can appeal to minority voters in an increasingly diverse society. California, Arizona and Florida approved amendments banning same-sex marriage. They did so at least partially on the basis of African-American and Hispanic voters who "surged" for Barack Obama and then voted against same-sex marriage. In California (70%) and Florida (71%) black voters supported both traditional marriage and Sen. Obama overwhelmingly.

The third core value must be a diversity agenda that aggressively recruits ethnic minorities into significant involvement in the GOP. The 2008 Republican National Convention did not reflect America's ethnic diversity. Demographics dictate that this must change, and decency demands that it should. This must include a more proactive approach on immigration reform.

The fourth core value must be an economic agenda that demonstrates as much concern for Main Street and the average family's budget as it does for Wall Street and multinational conglomerates.

The fifth core value must be foreign and defense policies that protect the homeland and maintain our nation's historic commitment to human liberty as a God-given right for everyone -- not just those currently living in a free country. America must always be more than just a country. She is a cause -- and that cause is freedom.

I'm interested to see what folks like Ross Douthat think about this (see Jonah Golberg on these "self-styled reformers").

The key to Land's program is that he puts the protection of life first, and this is the fundamental driving principle that separates Republicans from the far-left secular humanist base of today's Democratic Party.

I will be returning to the Land program in future posts.