I sat and listened to the Republican candidates for president debate tonight. As I listened, I thought about something Rush Limbaugh mentioned on his show today. He spoke of Newt Gingrich as an advocate Conservatism — of Gingrich’s role in defending Conservative values. Gingrich is a less than perfect Conservative, but he has eloquently confronted the media elites.

I also thought of an editorial the Washington Times published last Friday, WOLF: Mitt defends Mitt while Newt upholds conservatism. While reflecting upon the debate performances of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Dr. Milton R. Wolf made an interesting observation. Whereas Romney defended himself, Gingrich defended Conservatism. Instead of tacitly accepting the validity of the Liberal narrative and Liberal beliefs, Gingrich advocated Conservative beliefs. As Limbaugh observed in today’s show, when he does this, Gingrich serves as a vessel for the Conservative cause.

RUSH:  Newt is a vessel.  The heads of your party, you want the people that run the party that you’re a member of to get the message, stop making fun of you, stop impugning you, stop thinking you’re a bunch of hayseed hicks.  You just to want save the country. You want somebody that’s gonna have fire and brimstone to go out and beat Obama.  You don’t want people that are afraid to campaign.  I know exactly what this victory in South Carolina was all about.  The Republican primary voters are this audience.  I know exactly what’s going on here. I’ve known probably longer than 25 years.  But the people who make this country work are sick and tired of being blamed, falsely accused, attacked, called bigots and racists and sexists and homophobes and all these other horrible, rotten things, selfish, greedy.

They’re seeing their futures robbed. Their party doesn’t seem to have the guts to do anything to stop it.  They see their party leaders wanting to get themselves in charge of it all.  This guy (a caller), if I’d-a let him go on, he’d say, “We don’t care if Newt were married ten times right now. We don’t care if Newt had married a horse right now.  The message is what we want sent.”  We want this party to figure out how to represent us.  We think we know how to beat Obama, and it’s not with McCain.  It’s not by going after the independents.  It’s not by saying we want to compromise and cross the aisle and work with those people who are destroying this country as it was founded.

We don’t want to work with those people.  Those people have been laughing at us and making fun of us and impugning us, and we don’t want you being friends with them.  They are taxing us.  They are preventing our attempt to acquire wealth. They are spending our children’s future away.  Why do you want to make nice with them?  Why do you want to work with them?  Why do you want to compromise with them?  Why don’t you want to beat them?  That’s what we want.  Ergo, somebody comes along and shows how it could be done, and they go, “Yeah, right on, mama, keep it coming.”  That’s all Saturday was.  And it was a result of a couple big days prior to Saturday in the wake of South Carolina. (from here)

We want Conservative politicians to beat the Liberals. Nonetheless, for decades Conservative politicians have not stood up and defended Conservative beliefs. Why not? Well, consider how Wolf ended his column.

If the conservative values of limited government, individual liberty and constitutional fidelity are to prevail, they must be defended unceasingly, passionately and unapologetically. We must demand this of our candidates and our leaders.

I don’t suffer from the delusion that any political candidate is perfect. History has yet to produce such a mythical species, so we’d be fools to hold out for one now. Instead, I subscribe to the Milton Friedman idea that electing the “right” people is nice but a far more effective strategy is to make it politically profitable for even the wrong people to do the right things. Let’s make it politically profitable for our candidates to vigorously defend conservatism by rewarding with our votes those who do. (from here)

We have not made it politically profitable for our candidates to vigorously defend Conservatism? Sounds stupid, does it not? Yet that is the simple truth. Instead of trusting Conservative politicians, we have let the political establishment and the mainstream news media define these people. Instead of doing a little homework, we have believed their lies. That’s how the Liberal establishment removed Gingrich as the Speaker. That’s how the Liberal establishment macacaed Senator George Allen. That’s what the Liberal establishment has done to a whole host of Conservatives and the Republican establishment has quaked in terror — hiding in “moderation”, and We the People have stood silently, acquiesced, and let it happen.

Fortunately, times have changed. We the People finally want to resist the Liberal establishment. So now at last we have a choice of Conservatives. In the presidential race, we can choose between Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Rick Santorum. In Virginia’s U.S. Senate race we can choose between Senator George Allen and Delegate Bob Marshall. And we can ask which has been the more steadfast Conservative.

I recommend you research all candidates, particularly the ones the establishment would have you ignore. Do a little homework. Check out Senator Rick Santorum and Delegate Bob Marshall for they too have fought the good fight, and they have fought well.