Play The Cards You’re Dealt

Daniel Henninger is adding his voice to the growing chorus of people trying to talk conservatives off the ledge. In his column today, he reminds conservatives of their accomplishments over the years – and how they made a difference. He also urges them not to sell themselves short by dealing themselves out of the game.

Conservatives, for whom any glass is always half full, have sold themselves short. Notwithstanding the moderate pedigrees of the three major GOP candidates on entry, all emerged from the debates as Reagan conservatives on what matters: taxes, spending, regulation and national defense. Most of the worrisome moderate positions were in the past.

When Reaganomics appeared in the late 1970s, the Republican establishment mocked it. Voodoo economics, someone said. Today for a Republican presidential candidate, it's gospel.

This is an achievement.

Some will say the debate promises were just politics. As opposed to what? Presumably moving people toward one's position is the point of all this daily political heavy-lifting. To now call a candidate's embrace of your ideas unacceptable is churlish and self-defeating. Conservatives won a decades-long debate in their party. Bank it. The demand now that Sen. McCain repudiate that old vote on the Bush tax cuts is an attempt at public humiliation. Ain't gonna happen. If life doesn't work for you without public penance, join a monastery.

Most of the distrust of the McCain candidacy is rooted in personal ill will. He's a hard case, and activists are often brittle. The fear is that one of the strongest impulses in a McCain presidency will be payback, and that he might sell out conservatives on taxes and the judiciary. That is possible, though by now it would require an act of deep duplicity by Mr. McCain. Here again, the conservatives should show more self-confidence.

The big lesson of the failed Harriet Miers nomination is that a real establishment on judicial nominations exists now in Washington. Throwing another David Souter over the transom and onto the Court is nearly impossible. A participant in this process who has discussed it with Sen. McCain tells me that he says his advisers on major judicial nominations will include Ted Olson, Sam Brownback and Jon Kyl. Miguel Estrada, a victim of the Gang of 14 senators on the judicial filibuster, has endorsed Mr. McCain.

Sen. McCain's capos on economics and taxes are Phil Gramm, the probable Treasury nominee, and Steve Forbes, a GOP Hall of Famer who in the 1996 and 2000 campaigns kept Reaganomics alive. By now, the coming sellout is reaching Himalayan proportions. One may still assume the worst. Conservatives always do, not without reason. It is politically obstinate, though, to ignore the presence of this ballast. (For those who still insist on sitting it out over immigration, global warming or stem cells, there is no hope.)

Read it all, because there are a lot more points to ponder there.

Conservatives have made a huge difference to the Republican party by working in opposition within the party. Reagan was derided by many of the insiders when he arrived on the national scene. Yet he stuck, played the hand he was dealt and changed the world. Reagan was a very pragmatic conservative. He gave ground on many issues while cutting taxes and building up the nation's defenses. It would be a good thing to remember that. Reagan learned to play the hand that was dealt him exceedingly well and fundamentally changed things as a result of staying in.

You can't change or influence things if you throw the cards down and refuse to play. Insisting on ideological purity is something I deride on the left. I hate seeing the right trying to use the same tactics. In the end, requiring ideologues instead of politicians is self- defeating. Who can really measure up to your own internal yardstick? Why, only you, of course.

Refusing the cards and walking away from the game will cost some conservatives their place at the table. Ronald Reagan Would be appalled at that tactic.