Commentary

The opinions and commentary expressed on this website are that of the authors themselves and do not represent the Trustees of the Republican Leadership Trust or the organizations which the authors may be affiliated.

Peter J. Wirs
Chairman of the Trustees of the Republican Leadership Trust, incoming President of the National Conference of Public Officials, Wirs is also the author of the forthcoming treatise Government Ethics, Accountability and Productivity,  due Winter 2008-09.

Today’s Column Will the Republicans Win the Second Civil War?
It may be 145 years later, but General James Longstreet is finally getting what he wanted. As Civil War afficionados will tell you, the Confederate 1st Corps commander repeatedly urged Robert E. Lee during the Battle of Gettysburg to undertake a flanking maneuver around the Union’s left flank, which eventually became centered on the smaller of two hills south of town, Little Round Top. The objective was sweep past the Union Army to redeploy the Confederates between the Union Army and Washington, so as to “secure good ground between him and his capital,”as the means to end hostilities. 

Recall the politics of the Civil War. All of the South was controlled by Democrats, who favored both secession from the Union and keeping the “peculiar” institution of slavery. The North was represented by Republicans. It was a Republican President, a Republican Congress, and Republican Governors and state legislatures who funded the war, provided the troops and brought about the end of slavery. The Republican Party is the specific political outgrowth of the Abolitionist movement.

Fast-forward to 2008. Today, the Democrats are executing a maneuver around the GOP’s flank positioning themselves between the Republicans and the voting public. Today, the Democrats are picking the campaign issues, the “good ground,” forcing the GOP to respond not to articulate the GOP viewpoints, but to counter-answer the Democrat’s deceptive singsong.

Equally impressive is that the very same Democrats who fought tooth and nail to preserve slavery, to keep the Black Main in chains, is today trumpeting themselves as the savior of civil rights and equality. Every Republican is a racist, the direct descendent of the plantation slave owners. While Democrats now win elections in traditional rock-bed Republican states like New Hampshire or Pennsylvania, they portray the GOP as the party of the Deep South, resurrecting the ghosts of Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

Law professors Pierre Schlag and David Skover warned in Tactics of Legal Reasoning of the common rhetorical trick called the “Convert Base Switch.” Such illogical fallacy occurs when the author or a speaker makes it seem that a factual premise rests on a different set of facts (the basis) than the facts the premise actually relies upon. This rhetorical device is commonly used to suggest that a factual premise advocated is based on empirical grounds when, in fact, the factual premise is simply being used to support the author or speaker’s own evaluative judgment. The reason why this form of thinking is so dangerous is that the premise does not correspond to the actual facts universally accepted for the premise. “Although illegitimate, a covert [base] switch is often an effective rhetorical device, insofar as it deflects appropriate avenues of attack,” wrote Professors Schlag and Skover.

What is most disturbing in this Presidential campaign is that is what the Democrats are doing. They are setting up one covert base switch after another, causing the Republicans to respond to what the Democrats purport is the reasoning behind the issue. In other words, the Democrats are preventing the GOP and conservatives generally from asserting conservative beliefs and conservative issues to today’s problems. Instead, the GOP and conservatives are allowing the Democrats and liberals to select the “good ground” and dictate the terms of battle. The Democrats are controlling what the message will be in this campaign.

Want proof? Which political party does the general public associate with the “K Street” culture of corruption? The Republicans. Which political party does the general public associate with Congressional page scandals? The Republicans. Which political party does the general public associate with unlimited, wasteful Federal spending, with earmarks and pork? The Republicans. The GOP brand has sunk so low in the public esteem that if a business, the Republican Party would have been forced into Chapter 11. Yet where in any account of the GOP’s principles and beliefs do we see that the Republican Party stands for earmarks or wasteful spending? And historically, which party stood up for, indeed spilled blood in defense of civil rights and emancipation of African-Americans from the bondage of slavery? Which party wrote the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution? Which party was responsible for the Congressional passage of every major civil rights and voting rights bill, even when in the minority?

The Democrats are successfully pulling off (and the media tolerates) more sleighs of hand in political rhetoric in this Presidential campaign than in any in recent history. It is beyond shock, indeed it is heartbreaking to see the GOP simply stand there like a punching bag, taking one Democratic attack after another. It may be 145 years after the fact, but General Longstreet got his wish. The Democrats are sweeping pass the Republican Party flank and picking the “good ground” to inflict damage on the Grand Old Party.