Republican Unity in 2014?

Karl Rove released his forecast about 2014 elections, stating, “Every Republican senator and virtually every representative challenged in a primary as insufficiently conservative will win.” But some Tea Partiers have expressed their disdain for Rove’s comment.

Why?

Rove simply states a reality of our political condition after Obamacare’s implementation. Plus, even Tea Party favorites like Sen. Mike Lee, R-Ariz., are preaching this same message of unity – believing that Obamacare is a disaster, which must be repealed, defunded or significantly changed.

Tea Partiers are generally determined to expose Republican establishment corruption, but defeating Republican Party corruptors is not the only battle.

Indeed, there are more important battles than “cleaning house” when intruders are beating in the front and back doors.

If Tea Partiers refuse to unite on this issue, it will reveal that political purism causes more harm than good. But if Tea Partiers help other Republicans handle Obamacare in 2014, it will do a lot to repair and improve the Republican Party and the Tea Party.

In other words, victory will prove beneficial for all conservatives.

But this requires Tea Partiers to understand that principles of tactics are as important as principles of liberty.

The current battle in the Republican Party makes me hopeful. I believe that it is forcing many good people who have clung tightly to their own narrow perceptions of reality to take a wider view.

This wider view is likely to bring about a greater degree of cooperation between the wings of the party and move them toward moderation.

This intra-party moderation is also likely to lead to a less dysfunctional Congress overall.

This will be good for the future of the Republican Party and for the future of the country.

As for the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, conceptually it is a fait accompli. The gross inefficiencies and unconscionable oversights of our current health care system will no longer go unaddressed and will never be returned to. Things will change.

Obamacare will surely change, and needs to. And we need a healthy, functioning Republican Party and the people that it represents to play its rightful moderating, balancing role.

The polarization of our politics does not serve us well. We have pressing issues to face both domestically and internationally. We have a responsibility to lead, by admonition, by action, and by example.

Neither does the vilification of those who we disagree with serve us well. In the end we will work together or inevitably fall apart. It is ours to choose.