Commentary: Moderates vs. conservatives: Part 463

Reflecting on the party's ballot box losses in 2006 and 2008, GOP strategist Robert Uithoven recently said in an interview that "Republicans lost because voters became disenchanted with the party for not living up to conservative principles," declaring that this is a philosophical "battle within the Republican Party that needs to take place."

Amen.

Meanwhile, in that same interview former Nevada GOP state Sen. Warren Hardy was quoted as saying that "Nevada Republicans must adapt to the new reality - that Nevada is a Democratic state - and need to determine how to appeal to moderate Democrats and nonpartisan voters."

Drum roll, please.

And the winner of the 2009 Neville Chamberlain Award goes to.....

Warren Hardy!

Yes, by all means Warren. And Czechoslovakia should have "adapted to the new reality" that they had become a German state in 1938 and looked for ways to appeal to moderate Germans and the non-partisan Swiss rather than resist. I mean, why couldn't those Czechs just accept their fate quietly rather than getting the rest of the world all worked up over nothing? Sheesh.

By the way, it should be noted that Hardy was the only Republican in the state Senate this past legislative session to break his written pledge to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." In other words, in addition to being a kumbaya Republican appeaser, the man's word is apparently not worth the paper it's printed on. No wonder lobbyists loved the guy.

Hardy then went on to say that "conservative ideologues are not Republicans, but, rather, libertarians."

Hmm. I seem to recall that "conservative ideologue" Barry Goldwater was a Republican. And it was Goldwater who sparked the GOP's libertarian-conservative movement in the late '60s which ultimately set the stage for the election of Republican "conservative ideologue" Ronald Reagan in 1980. And as Reagan himself explained:

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. . . . The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

So it seems to me the "conservative ideologues" and the "libertarians" are the true Republicans, not the moderates who, for example, persuaded George Bush the First to abandon his "read my lips; no new taxes" pledge which gave us Bill Clinton. Or, as Mr. Uithoven points out, the big-government moderates in Congress who we can thank for Barack Obama, Harry Reid and San Fran Nan.

Considering the electoral damage moderates have done to the GOP over recent years, it's not that they should leave the Republican Party; they just shouldn't lead the Republican Party.

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a limited-government public policy organization.