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Our only hope for America is that every conservative takes upon him or herself the project of learning what American and conservative values are, coming to understand what leftism stands for, and learning how to make the case for those values to women, young people, blacks and Hispanics. That is what my radio show, latest book and Prager University are about. And while I am, happily, hardly alone, there are still far too few of us who understand "the vision thing." Surely the Republican establishment has not.

Think where we might be if Karl Rove understood that.
The nearly universal response — meaning the response offered by the liberal media and liberal academics (and some Republicans) — is that the Republican Party needs to rethink its positions, moving away from conservatism and toward the political center.
In my heart of hearts, I do not believe in the very existence of “the political center.” Certainly there are nuances of emphasis which can be politically significant - but in general if you are anywhere near “conservative”
(which belongs in scare quotes because we believe in and promote progress of, by, and for the people just as “progressive” belongs in scare quotes because “progressives” believe in progress of, by, and for the politicians)
then any movement away from conservatism is movement from a defensible position to an indefensible one.
Rush illustrated the point beautifully yesterday by pointing out that no matter what the “center," as it conceives itself, of the Republican Party might do to position the party as “pro-choice,” there would still be people - indeed, millions of people - whom the journalistic left could and would promote as being the heart of the party for whom “pro-choice” is anathema. So that there is no possible political profit in moving from the principled position toward the “liberal” position unless you are willing and able to position the party all the way to the left of the Democrats. And, even as they will condemn your lack of principle, the Democrats will still outflank you to the left.
The only possible result of the attempt to "moderate" conservative principle is internal damage to the Republican Party. The true path from Democrat voter to Republican voter is the path from “liberal” voter to “conservative” voter. It is the Road to Damascus. The scales have to fall from the eyes of the blinded. And as the saying that “a young conservative has no heart, an old liberal has no brain” illustrates, it does happen.

Rush illustrated the point beautifully yesterday by pointing out that no matter what the “center," as it conceives itself, of the Republican Party might do to position the party as “pro-choice,” there would still be people - indeed, millions of people - whom the journalistic left could and would promote as being the heart of the party for whom “pro-choice” is anathema. So that there is no possible political profit in moving from the principled position toward the “liberal” position unless you are willing and able to position the party all the way to the left of the Democrats. And, even as they will condemn your lack of principle, the Democrats will still outflank you to the left.

But the other side of that is, as Daniel Greenfield recently said, why flaunt an unpopular position especially when the candidate in question is unlikely to do anything about it?

He used the example of gay marriage which Obama opposed until the polls told him he was okay to go with it. Prior to that the Democratic machine would let that special interest group know they supported it, but not make it one of the issues that everyone assoicates with that party. On the right, we do the opposite. Trumpet pro-life to the masses that the left can then manipulate into an anti-woman stance and for what purpose when there is not a whole bunch that a president can do about it anyway? Not smart.