ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280042
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Cal Thomas
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
SO, THE Republican ``big tent'' isn't so big after all. Economic conservatives will allow social conservatives in the tent so long as they don't take control of the circus. It is a version of the game some of these people once played with blacks. We'll let you be a cook or a caddy at our country clubs, but you can't play golf.
The verbal abuse now being heaped on Pat Buchanan is only partially about his position on issues (otherwise his detractors would debate him on the merits of his ideas instead of labeling him a radical extremist). Buchanan is being attacked by those whose primary concern is how much money they have in the bank, not how little virtue remains on deposit in our culture.
Just who are the real extremists in America? The ones who want to re-establish concepts such as right and wrong in our schools, or those who kicked out the Bible and put in the condoms and weapon detectors? The ones whose curriculum produced well-educated young people, or those whose ideas have given us functional illiterates who can barely read their worthless high school diplomas? Which extreme is to be blamed for verbal and physical assaults on teachers?
Which extreme should be held accountable for family breakup? Those who opposed ``no-fault'' divorce, or those who supported it, along with prenuptial agreements and cohabitation?
Which extreme is responsible for the growing underclass? The poverty merchants whose idea of compassion is to raise taxes and redistribute your income, or those who see much (but not all) poverty resulting from bad lifestyle choices encouraged by popular culture?
Which extreme created cities whose streets are unsafe to navigate at night? Which extreme is responsible for a judicial system that has been transformed into a servant of opinion polls and social engineers?
Which is the more extreme family role model: "Ozzie and Harriet" or "Beavis and Butt-head"? Which extreme has been in charge of culture and academia for the past four decades? These are the questions the Republican establishment should be asking.
Former Nixon counsel Charles Colson believes the Republican Party is about to split, and that isn't necessarily bad. Interviewed last Sunday on my CNBC television program, Colson said, ``Eventually [the split] is coming. The economic conservatives - the old main-line Republican who is a social liberal - and the religious conservatives ... eventually those two will cancel each other out. If that [economic conservative] wing gains ascendancy this year, the religious right will split off.''
Colson believes the future belongs to religious conservatives: ``There is an emerging majority in this country that recognizes the problem of crime is that we have taken away the moral restraints, and we have a generation without conscience and they're coming over the hills. In 1998 there will be 1 million more kids in the 14-17-year-old age group than there are today. These are the children of the baby boomers. Their violent crime rate has gone up 100 percent in the last eight years. So the economic conservatives who want to ignore the social issues - who say we don't care about values, keep out of politics - are missing the heart of what it's going to take to cure the malaise affecting this country.''
Colson says Buchanan's critics are missing the power of his message. ``Pat is speaking to the yearnings of the heartfelt needs of the American people and, yes, he could win the nomination.''
Buchanan is wrong when he prescribes conservative government as the solution to economic problems caused by liberal government. The reason many jobs have left the country has more to do with high taxes and over-regulation than trade policy. His critique of culture, however, is dead right.
It's time to tell the economic conservatives who are social liberals that they can't win without the social conservatives.
The social conservatives, who also believe in economic conservatism, must now set the agenda. If the conservative social liberals don't like it, they can demonstrate their intolerance by retreating to their country clubs to reminisce over martinis about how good it was in the old days when they lost most elections.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB