An Alternate View of the Republican "Schism"

I like Mark Steyn. Listening to him speak on Hugh Hewitt's radio talk show is a treat. I like reading his columns in the Chicago Sun-Times, too, which are often handily linked at RealClearPolitics.com.

A couple weeks ago I had a rather lengthy post on what I viewed would be a Republican schism, one between the libertarian wing and the "we've got the power" wing. Steyn has a different view, one I hope is correct:

The Republicans did the right thing here, and they won't be punished for it by the electors. As with abortion, this will be an issue where the public moves slowly but steadily toward the conservative position: Terri Schiavo's court-ordered death will not be without meaning. As to "crack-ups," that's only a neurotic way of saying that these days most of the intellectual debate is within the right. If, like the Democrats, all you've got are lockstep litmus tests on race and abortion and all the rest, what's to crack up over? You just lose elections every two years, but carry on insisting, as Ted Kennedy does, that you're still the majority party. Ted's quite a large majority just by himself these days, but it's still not enough.