The Three Wing Republican Lesson

Dr. Patrick Briney, ARRA President: Some lessons are never learned. Republican party leadership told us that the 2008 election would be run from the grassroots rather than from the top down. They told us that we need to swing to the center and run moderates on the ticket. They told us that the conservatism of Ronald Reagan was the past and that McCain symbolized what people want now. They were wrong, again. Their leadership led to a weak and lackluster campaign season.

When will the Republican leadership learn that conservatives are the heart and soul of the party? It is this conservatism that fires up the party base and mobilizes its members. When McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be his running mate, the party was reinvigorated. At least, more so than before the Palin announcement. Many conservatives who were thinking about voting third party were wooed back into the party. What was it about Palin that fired up the Republican party? Her conservatism.

Ronald Reagan’s success is credited to his conservatism. Specifically, his social conservatism, his economic conservatism, and his political conservatism. These three conservative wings need the other two to win. When economic conservatives dismiss social conservatives or the political conservatives or vice versa, there is disarray in a divided party. Together, Republicans stand, or together, they fall. The Republican party needs leadership that understands the necessity of building a coalition with all three wings of conservatism. Doing so will bring vital energy and zeal back to the party. The Arkansas Republican Assembly (ARRA) is an affiliate of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, a thoughtful national organization of GOP conservatives working to grow and strengthen the Republican Party in the tradition of President Ronald Reagan.

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