Today’s Washington Times featured an article on Ward Connerly, the former UC Regent who successfully led California’s Prop. 209 campaign in 1996.  This year, he followed up his success in California and Washington State with a big victory in the state of Michigan.  You can read the whole article here, but here are a few interesting quotes about the Republican Party:

Connerly says the opposition he has faced by many GOP officials has "led me to conclude that conservatives are to the Republican Party what blacks are to the Democrat Party — both are taken for granted. Just as the Democrat Party doesn’t have to worry about the black vote, Republicans believe they don’t have to worry about the conservative vote."

"I’ve been haunted by the fact that the Republicans have been increasingly becoming more cowardly and less inclined to support the principle of equal treatment for several years," he told The Washington Times.  

At the CPAC convention this month, he said, "The conservative movement needs to get out of the shadow of the Republican Party."

I’m not one to advocate that conservatives leave the Republican Party, but particularly here in California, something has to change.  Ray Haynes’ commentary today on Governor Schwarzenegger hits the nail on the head.  The governor’s people want us to believe that they are the better Republicans because they won the election.  The fact that the governor has abandoned the Party’s values seems irrelevant to them.  He won, no one else did, end of story. 

But leadership, as Haynes points out, is not about taking a poll and following it.  It is about standing up for your beliefs and making clear and reasonable arguments that convince the voters to follow your lead. 

It is not easy standing up for your principles.  Just ask Ward Connerly.  I worked for Ward during the 1996 campaign and witnessed some of the reprehensible behavior exhibited towards him by people who opposed his position on racial preferences.  Ward does not need polls to tell him what is right.  In his heart, he believes that people deserve to have equal treatment by their government, no matter their gender, race or ethnicity.    

What Haynes wrote about William Wilberforce could be also written about Ward Connerly: "He knew right from wrong, and even when right was unpopular, and not ‘the will of the people.’ he persisted, ultimately persuading an intelligent and moral people to do the right thing."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.