Conservatives still calling the shots

I have known Justin P. Hill, the former chairman of the IU College Republicans, since I was a freshman. 

He is a self-identified conservative.  As he has moved from being a columnist at this newspaper to being chairman of IU Students for John McCain and eventually to the top of the student wing of the GOP on this campus, I have never heard anyone accuse him of not living up to that claim.

When the IU College Republicans held their elections for new officers last Monday, Hill told members that he left with a lot of memories and praised the group for being “unabashedly conservative.” He did more than urge them to stay that way.

“I challenge this group to the goal of making Indiana University a premier institution for political development and engagement of conservative Republican citizens,” he said.
Ever since Republicans were trounced in 2008 there has been talk of a crisis in the conservative movement. Many liberals and moderates dream that unelectable Republicans will be forced to re-align their views.

They point to events like the recent election to represent New York’s 23rd Congressional District, where an awkward confrontation between a third party conservative and the moderate Republican nominee led to a Democratic victory in what should be a safe Republican seat, as evidence for their claims.

In the short-run, this is looking like a fantasy. With a lousy economy Republicans don’t need to confront their base to start winning elections. There are few signs at IU or on the national stage that Republicans will be seriously revaluating their policy positions.

Here in Bloomington, the IU College Republicans have screened a film downplaying, the evidence for global warming and during a health care debate between them and the IU College Democrats one member repeated the baseless claim that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy wouldn’t have been able to get the health care he needed under the Democrats reform plan.

Yet, even as most Republican legislators treated debates over health care and global warming as opportunities to sink President Barack Obama, the party won two gubernatorial elections by focusing on jobs.

Some IU College Republican members are more moderate on social issues.
Chelsea Kane, former chairwoman of the IU College Republicans, said she thought gay couples should have completely equal rights when it comes to their relationships and that she doesn’t care what their unions are called.

But if the Republican Party has big changes ahead of it (and demographic pressures still suggest it does), I don’t see any sign of those changes here.

Justin Kingsolver, the new chairman of the IU College Republicans, and the other new officers, have a lot of freedom in determining the organization’s future.

I would love to see the group be more critical of ideas tossed around in the conservative movement.

But, without real incentives to change, the Republican Party seems content not to.