Colin Powell called for a more centrist Republican party on Tuesday (May 5, 2009).  Whether Powell is a dupe or a closet statist isn’t clear yet, but it looks to be the later.

Mr. Powell, when you cave in on principles and on the defense of liberty you lose.  Perhaps you didn’t realize you were fighting for the freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, but I suggest you re-read the Founding documents and recall the hard fought battles that were won for liberty.

For the GOP, Freedom is a winning platform.  Not since Reagan has the GOP had a candidate who was a staunch defender of Liberty.  The GOP has not had a Republican candidate with a core philosophy that really believed in protecting freedom.  Republicans have done badly because Bush 41, Dole, Bush 43, and McCain were middle of the road centrists who had no core philosophy.  A candidate who wants to win is one who says things like: FREEDOM WORKS; everyone is born free, we do not believe in squandering the liberties for which the Founders fought so hard.

Running as a Statist-Lite or Democrat-Lite is no way to win an election because someone will always be able to outspend you.  Every Republican candidate has been the candidate of the establishment, meant to broaden the base of the party.  Running as a lite version of someone else will not broaden the base.  Standing for freedom is the way to win elections.

A few years ago, Bush was reported to be discussing using some of his political capital on a project which is a losing strategy.  When you stand for something you don’t “use” your political capital up.  Stating your arguments and defending them clearly won’t “use” up capital, it will create capital.  But you have to believe in the principles that the country was founded on and you have to believe that most people want to be free and want the same for their children.

Liberty is an easy sell because most people want it.  Vision, a positive attitude, and eloquence will move mountains and demonstrate to the citizens of the United States that there are people who truly care about their freedom.  Pragmatism means abandoning citizenship for servitude and principles for power.