Monday night, Sean Hannity interviewed Dr. James Dobson on the recent news that many conservative leaders may support a third-party candidate if Rudy Giuliani is put forth as the GOP presidential candidate.
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This third-party business is a huge deal.
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Hannity makes no bones about supporting Giuliani (an issue for another day). So I was not surprised he took the "lesser of two evils" approach with Dobson, i.e., if we don't accept Giuliani, we'll certainly get Hillary.
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Dobson responded not just with solid moral arguments but two solid political arguments:
- It's way too early to try to force conservatives – again – to compromise.
- Who says Giuliani can beat Hillary?
Good people I know are warning against a conservative split from the GOP, and Dobson acknowledged the danger.
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But for many reasons, I'm open to following conservative leaders like Dobson and Tony Perkins down this path, if they so decide. It would be a serious, risky endeavor. The Republican Party has been relatively good on the pro-life issue.
But it hasn't been great on it, particularly when political stars aligned for it to take big strides, and then it did not. Also maddening is when the GOP wages war against solid pro-life candidates like Pat Toomey to sustain pro-abort incumbent weasels like Arlen Specter.
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We only need look to the Democrat-controlled Congress for inspiration on how to handle the abortion issue with conviction. Its leaders are never shy about advancing the pro-abortion agenda, by word or deed. Even now, it has mattered naught to Democrat leaders that their current power is drawn in large part by conservative or moderate candidates they ran who won. They press on.
Clear now that one reason certain Republican politicos waffled on conservative issues was because they became morally compromised, which leads to policy compromise.
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So what if Democrats get caught with cigars where they don't belong or a frozen stash of cash? There's no divide between their morality and their policy. Nothing to compromise.
Perhaps GOP housecleaning will lead to GOP ideology resolve, including presenting a presidential candidate who emulates his party's base. We'll see.
Otherwise the days ahead will be interesting.
Related special offers:
"ENDING ABORTION: How the pro-life side will win the war"
"On Message: The Pro-Life Handbook"