After a long string of defeats, the British won the second battle of El Alamein in 1942. It was a turning-point in World War II. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill immortalized the occasion by giving a speech in which he said “…this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” While Churchill spoke in reaction to a victory, his words can be applied to our current situation, because we’re starting to see proactive behaviors on the part of some conservatives in government.

First, in a rare display of solidarity, conservatives in Congress marshaled Republicans into a cohesive unit to oppose the pork-laden stimulus bill that will reverse many constructive measures such as welfare reform.

Secondly, several conservative governors refused funds provided by the bill and eloquently articulated their reasons for doing so. The acceptance of temporary government funds would require a permanent change to the unemployment laws of states who accept these monies, thus endangering the principle of federalism.

Conservatives in “fly-over country” exhort their politicians to fight liberal encroachments on our system of government. These politicians find themselves in defensive mode like beleaguered troops defending a crumbling fort reduced by cannon fire. In their classic roles, liberals advocate change, (even, sometimes, for its own sake) while conservatives attempt to hold onto old-fashioned values and traditional mores and are reduced to the appearance of defending the status quo.

As the GOP gives ground on issues that accommodate bigger government while claiming to defend our conservative principles, the watching public rightly concludes that Republicans are standing on shifting sand—not holding the line against big government. At a time when the public seems ready to embrace socialism, elected Republicans need to articulate the problems and failures socialism will bring, and force liberals to defend their fort—which is not impregnable.

The mere fact that conservatives remain on the defensive and liberals continue on the offensive telegraphs to the American public the impression that their ideas are stronger than ours.

Successful revolutionary leaders do not compromise with or form coalitions with the political parties they have targeted for overthrow. Liberals have followed this policy for years. They almost universally proclaimed the war in Iraq a failure all along. They said the troop surge failed before it was even implemented, an approach that now appears to be winning the war. It’s about time we employ their strategy and we’ve begun to, with resistance in Congress and conservative governors’ refusal to accept stimulus money.

These small beginnings are indicative of a strategy by which conservatives become the proactive party in the struggle. As liberals institute their policies, we need to insist on evidence that they work for the American people—not just for the Democratic Party.

Some conservatives lament what’s happened to our country. We may need to look at the current situation this way: the torch has been passed to us. Abraham Lincoln used the House Divided metaphor to refer to geopolitical and ideological divide. The crumbling fort metaphor refers to the political divide that is ideological. Both metaphors allude to the breakdown of our political system. We are called upon to fight the never-ending battle for freedom. That battle has not become violent—yet. Socialism has not yet triumphed in America. Conservatives must become energized by the fact that at this point in history our generation has been called upon to rally.

Moderate Republicans, by virtue of their acquiescence to liberal ideas, cannot leave that crumbling fort and regroup. They have been lured to stay inside a fort that has been infiltrated and overrun, and are doomed to stay in place until they must surrender and be absorbed by the socialists. The three moderate Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania—who capitulated to the Democrats on the stimulus package, for example, console themselves by claiming to have shaved $100 billion off the package. Whether or not those cuts survived later revisions, the effect of the bill on our system of government is the same, and moderate Republicans have surrendered. Leave those moderate appeasers behind.

When the attackers see that a fort is about to be taken, the last thing they want is to allow the defenders to withdraw, regroup and return to the fray. The defenders need to recognize when it is time to leave. The real danger lies in staying in that fort as it crumbles around us.

More than 65 years later, Churchill’s words may be appropriate because they imply that there is a long, hard battle to be fought. That the end is not in sight, but that hope is realistic. Churchill had hope and gave hope to his followers because of a victory. We can have hope now because there is evidence that we’re not simply waiting for President Obama and liberals to make missteps. We’re not simply waiting for the next liberal charge. We can, and should for the good of the American people, hold liberals responsible for the success or failure of their policies.