Another example is the Guantanamo Bay prison. When President Bush said he'd like to close the prison if and when feasible, he opened the door for President Obama to press forward with this insanity. Republicans have boxed themselves in on the issue and have less credibility to challenge the anti-war leftist propaganda that we grossly abused prisoners there, when the evidence shows the opposite. Instead of leading, Republicans are allowing themselves to be led, lest they be singled out for special ridicule by liberals for telling the politically incorrect truth.
Nor do many Republicans have the temerity to dispute the patently absurd leftist dogma that Gitmo is the terrorists' greatest recruitment tool because otherwise-peaceful Muslims will be so outraged at mild mistreatment of war prisoners -- in those exceptional cases in which mistreatment occurs -- that they'll join the beheading movement.
Now, with Obama's nomination of Judge Sotomayor, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tells us we have to tread lightly in daring to oppose her. You'd expect His Shillness to take that position, but how about Republican politicians and "conservative" commentators? Why do we have to tread lightly at the prospect of the appointment of a radical leftist activist judge who believes in rewriting the Constitution on the fly to achieve the policy results that she and the Appointer in Chief desire?
I swear; sometimes our side acts as oblivious as liberals about the indispensability of our system of checks and balances to the preservation of our liberties. If the integrity of the Constitution isn't worth fighting for, what is?
Just what would Obama have to do to warrant our criticism? Just how radical and in your face would he have to be before people quit falling for his empty bipartisan rhetoric?
There will always be those who stubbornly cling to the misguided notion that Republicans could build a bigger tent through caving on 90 percent of their supposed principles and offering only Democrat lite. But the only chance we have for a Republican resurgence is if Republicans return to their conservative roots and offer a real, stark alternative to the unfolding Obama destruction.
If they roll over instead of vigorously opposing this madness, they'll have no legitimacy to mount an alternative case in 2010 and 2012. Thus, pragmatism versus principles is a false choice. It's more pragmatic, not to mention more honorable, to stick to your principles.
If the GOP continues to surrender its principles, however, it won't matter if it wins, because it will have morphed into that which it has professed to oppose.