Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150025
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the first positive message we have heard about racial progress in a very long time, Powell praised a nation that has moved in one generation from denying ``a black man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to the highest military office in the nation and to being a serious contender for the presidency.''
He also properly cautioned Republicans about children and the poor slipping through the cracks in the party's zeal to fix the disastrous welfare system. And he appealed for more civil debate based on facts and issues instead of the ad hominem attacks he said he had been subjected to by some of his critics. All good stuff.
What should concern Republicans, though, are some of Powell's other statements. First, he said he wanted to ``broaden the appeal'' of the party. But that appeal was broad enough to win the Senate and House in the 1994 election. The appeal was broad enough to capture the White House in most modern elections. That appeal has been so broad that even Democrats are repealing their tax-and-spend orthodoxy to call for smaller government and lower taxes.
The way the Republican Party should broaden its appeal is by proving its ideas work. But if Powell means, as I fear he does, that to make the party more ``appealing,'' it must dilute its ideas and take the easy road to produce immediate opinion-poll (and editorial) approval, then the general is a Trojan horse who will return the party to the Rockefeller era and to lost elections, no vision and little future. The party today was created in the image of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, not ``moderates'' like Nelson Rockefeller.
The demonization of the Republican Party has not been caused by Scrooge-like Republicans salivating over the prospect of starving children because they are eager to protect their upscale lifestyles at the country club. That's the big media talking, and their allies within the Democratic Party who don't want to give up political power and whose view is that humankind can be improved more by government than through individual initiative.
Powell also spoke about ``common truths.'' What he meant was common beliefs. But truth is truth, whether held commonly or not (as in ``we hold these truths to be self-evident''). Our retreat from truth in favor of ``pluralism,'' in which all opinions are afforded equal weight, regardless of merit, has led us to the social chaos Powell and the rest of us deplore.
Powell then mentioned the need to restore a sense of shame. Who could disagree? But Powell apparently believes we should feel no shame about the 30 million babies who have been legally aborted in the past 22 years. What could be more shameful than a society that once regarded all human life as precious now depreciating life at the beginning through abortion, and at the end with the help of Dr. Jack Kevorkian? Is shame to be selective, invoked only when opinion polls show a majority feels comfortable about it?
Following Powell's announcement, one of his critics, Gary Bauer, of the Family Research Council, issued a conciliatory statement: ``Colin Powell can be expected to be a prominent figure on the national stage for a long time to come. We wish him well. In the months ahead, we hope he will maintain an open door to conservatives who admire his character and would like to see him passionately embrace our vision of smaller government, lower taxes and traditional values. Our doors - and our forums - are always open to him. We hope his door is open to us.''
Powell should accept the invitation. If he catches the vision about the need to rebuild the nation's moral infrastructure, including the respect for life at all stages, he could make the party of Lincoln the party of Powell and have an impact on the next century similar to what Lincoln had on the last one.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB