Friday, January 14, 2011

Rhoads: Let's Petition with Conviction

Jared Rhoads of the Lucidicus Project has a new OpEd out, "Let's petition with conviction".

In his piece, he makes the following critical point about the Morris petition to oppose ObamaCare:
Republicans need to stop hinting that they support individual rights -- if indeed they do -- and instead come out and uphold rights as a matter of firm, moral conviction.

I used to think that Republicans did stand for individual rights on principle, but that they shied away from moral arguments because they deemed it better public relations to be "big-tent," inclusive, neutral. Well, over the past two years, the Tea movement has demonstrated that pro-individualist moral sentiments are popular and effective. We are still waiting for the Republicans to catch up.
(Read the full text of "Let's petition with conviction".)

Basically, Republicans (and other would-be defenders of limited government) have to stop ceding the moral high ground to the Left. Unless they fully grasp that individual rights and limited government are good (and must be defended as such), they'll ultimately lose.

Let's hope enough Republicans are listening...