A Goldwater Revival?

George Will opines on the topic of a possible revival of classical liberal values within the Republican Party in the wake of the New York GOP Convention:

Four decades after a Republican convention in San Francisco nominated Sen. Goldwater, sealing the ascendancy of conservatism in the party, his kind of conservatism made a comeback at the convention here. That conservatism — muscular foreign policy backing unapologetic nationalism; economic policies of low taxation and light regulation; a libertarian inclination regarding cultural questions — is not fully ascendant in the party. But the prominent display and rapturous reception of Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger demonstrated that such conservatism is not an insurmountable impediment to a person’s reaching the party’s highest echelons.

Where George Will makes his mistake is in assuming that the rise of the old Goldwater libertarianism means an utter reversal of the social conservative platform:

The Republican Party’s challenge is to keep its old fissures closed while relaxing the stringency of its social issues catechism. Republicans can derive encouragement from a long-lived coalition that was composed of elements far more discordant than a Republican Party that includes John Ashcroft as well as Giuliani and Schwarzenegger. FDR’s “Roosevelt Coalition,” which was born with the New Deal and did not crumble for four decades, balanced Northern liberals, intellectuals, organized labor and Southern segregationists.

*snip*

The Republican Party remains firmly on the side of the pro-life and religiously motivated social conservatives. But here this week the party began in earnest the task of making others not only more comfortable within the party but eligible to rank among its leaders.

The libertarian wing of the party takes hope, not in the relaxation of social issues, but in staring down the inevitable slide conservatives have taken towards social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, the backing of public education, and the like.

Will is very correctly assuaging the libertarian flair many Republicans possess. But what he misses is the fact that the old Goldwater flame is being fanned not because of the policies of this president, but in spite of them.

There is much room for libertarian-minded Republicans who are obstinately pro-life. In fact, it is the future of the party.

The question is whether or not the massive deficit spending, the bloated federal government under a Republican watch, and a typical political waffling on the more critical social issues of our time will send them clamoring to a Libertarian Party that will offer them more than temporary lip service.

Will is right to address the classical liberals within the GOP. But they are not the RINOs. The Republicans-In-Name-Only are the moderates who continue to promote big government programs in the name of Republican values.

One would be hard pressed to find a classical liberal of Goldwater’s stripe that would embrace the ideals and principles of Giuliani or Schwarzenegger.