Squaring the Vision Thing with the Silver Ring Thing

The Next Right is nothing if not provocative. Posters there are slinging out all kinds of ideas- some good, some bad, some from other planets (Bob Barr's eCampaign Manager unveils his theory of everything, adding, "If John McCain had received the benefit of Ron Paul's mostly unmanaged grassroots operations, designers would currently be competing to see who could design Sarah Palin's inaugural gown") but they are trying hard to rethink the box the Party is in, and find a way out.

Max Borders takes a corporate-retreat view, and starts with the premise that the GOP needs (as George H.W. Bush would say), to recover the Vision Thing , starting with these elements from The Founders:

• Freedom is good for its own sake. (We don’t like tyrants or nannies.)
• Freedom gives rise to prosperity. (It helps us to be prosperous.)
• Freedom can only be guaranteed through limiting government. That may mean “going local” (federalism), checks and balances (constitutional reform), or financial constraints (tax & spending reform). As Madison warned: There are no angels in Washington.
• Freedom must never be auctioned off. (That means must never be sold to special interests, politicians, corporations—even for short term political gain).
• Freedom’s protection and preservation is the sole purpose of government. (Freedom sacrificed to equality (or “crisis management” or “pragmatism” or X) gives us neither.)

Good thoughts, all. workable, even. But how does one square them with the Party's social principles , which, last time we looked, were still in Jerry Falwell's cold, dead hands?