Learn From The Enemy;Frank Rich "In the end, the (GOP) party's best bet may be not to do something but just stand there until history cycles back to it

In a long piece at the New York magazine, Frank Rich a solid leftists describes every possible negative currently afflicting (he says) the Republican party. From Rubio's apparent immediate rise and fall to-well everything. You can read the whole mishegas "Lipstick On An Elephant"
HERE


After a massive litany of all the woes afflicting the GOP which is in all the stages of grief and denial, except acceptance he advises, Rich exhibits good sense by writing off all the supposed ameliorative, cosmetic changes being banded about by the spin masters and media consultants and concludes with this pithy sentence

" Its current leaders are more faithful than ever—more faithful than Nixon, Ford, and both George Bushes ever were—to the principles laid down by Goldwater and Reagan. In the end, the party’s best bet may be not to do something but just stand there until history cycles back to it once more."

Rich makes the point that after the Goldwater electoral defeat the core conservative element in the party not only refused to accept the centrists demand for a more inclusive GOP but kept to their core principles and eventually won and brought the 'Reagan revolution".

The concept was valid then and is valid now and instead of, as he rightly points out, cosmetic candidates like Rubio, first and last principles should guide the leadership. In commenting on the GOP primary campaign in 2012 Sarah Palin, in a not so veiled reference to Mitt Romney said, to paraphrase "we need a candidate who is not learning to be a conservative on the job."

If the GOP is to stick to the knitting rather than don the "lipstick" that Rich rightly excoriates as a false covering to true principles then Palin, or a Palin-ite leader should don the mantle of Reagan and Reagan-ism.

 Rich is wrong when he includes Akin as amongst the true face of the Republican party, as he should know that Palin, and many others, from all wings of the party, condemned Akin's statement on rape.

Nor is he correct in saying that Republicans voted for Akin (in the primary) because he expressed what they want. It would be difficult to imagine that if he had made his rape statement in the primary campaign that he would have been selected.

However, we can allow Rich a bit of exaggeration and hyperbole as he padded out his massive list of Republican failings because his conclusion is the correct one. CPAC will reinforce this conclusion and I would believe that Palin will emerge from it as the true to conservatism in practice and philosophy Reagan for 2016.