Serious Political Commentary for Serious Conservatives



The Independent Voice for Conservative Values
and the Conscience of the Conservative Movement
Less Government is the Best Government




 
 

What's Wrong Inside the Republican Party?
Is a Bridge Between Republicans Even Possible at this Point?
Fractious Factions - A Conservative / Libertarian Bridge


By Scott Rohter and an Anonymous Friend of the Republic
April 2012 - Updated November 2013

Big labor unions, big money, the entitlement class, and the unethical and immoral government oligarchy are the main reasons that America has its back up against the wall. The Conservative Movement has been effectively co-opted when prominent people like Sarah Palin endorse candidates like Newt Gingrich who has never been a conservative in his life, or Marco Rubio endorses Mitt Romney over more conservative candidates. Have you ever noticed how Republicans always rally behind their so called conservatives only to have them abandon both us and their so called “conservative” principles after they get elected? Take Scott Brown for instance after he got elected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts with the Tea Party's help in the special election of 2010, and now apparently the freshman Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio with his endorsement of Mitt Romney over Rick Santorum in the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary.

I think that we fail as voters whenever we don’t thoroughly vet all of our candidates and hold every one of them fully accountable. I also fear that we have very short memories which often allow us to fall prey to a candidate’s latest story such as, "they have seen the conservative light" when in reality the plain and simple truth is that they only see winning an election as an end in itself. They don't see their victoy as the means to a much more important end, i.e. the way to fix what is wrong with our beloved country. In my humble opinion some politicians want to win public office way more than they should and for some of the worst reasons imaginable.

The finest example of a public servant that ever lived was the model set for us by George Washington who didn’t really want to be our Nation’s first President. He had to be forcibly recruited against his own will, and even then he was only willing to serve for two terms, thus establishing the precedent which has always been followed in the United States of America with the lone exception being that of FDR. Thereafter he retired completely from public life. That is not the same model that is being currently followed by most of today's politicians including Mitt Romney who has already been the Governor of Massachusetts for four years. Then he ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, and ever since then he has been continuously running for the last six years of his life to be either our Nation’s 41st President or our Nation’s 42nd President depending on when you start counting.

As conservatives and libertarians we have chosen the GOP as the best vehicle to achieve our common goals of fixing what is wrong with our country and restoring Constitutional government to Washington D.C. Considering what is wrong inside the Republican Party I don't even know if that is possible. The current leadership of the Republican Party is almost entirely vested in the progressive agenda. They wear a conservative hat around election time, but they keep on delivering the same old program and use the same old tactics as their progressive predecessors. They present us with what they call “our last, best hope. Their conclusion is that we can only slow down the progressive slide to socialism. We cannot completely stop it. They seem to fear an authentic conservative political revival in our country almost as much as they want to beat Democrats.

When the Republican Party gave us John McCain in 2008, they did so with the tacit understanding that even a lost dog could find his way back to his own vomit. Now it is Mitt Romney’s turn to receive the Establishment’s imprimatur. This is their highly sought after seal of approval, and their public endorsement. The very first Establishment Republican figure to publicly endorse Mitt Romney was moderate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Then there was John McCain, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for President last time around. Next came former Kansas Senator Bob Dole (another unsuccessful Republican Presidential candidate). Then there was former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and his daddy, the former President George H.W.Bush. All of these national figures came out in favor of Mitt Romney. The Establishment certainly knows how to support one of its own.

Now we have the next batch of counterfeit conservatives who are slowly making their way to the “political pulpit” in order to make their public professions of faith for Mitt Romney, the “Establishment’s Choice”. There was Congressman Paul Ryan from Virginia, and more recently the freshman Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. Now it's Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson's turn. Then all the rest of the Republican Party is just supposed to follow along and uniformly rally behind the leader like a bunch of sheople. Well I just won’t do it.

One factor to consider is the extreme arrogance of the Republican Establishment. Often these phony conservatives seem like they are trying to fit the comical characterization that is often painted about them in the left-wing media, i.e. that they are unreasonable, un-compassionate, greedy, self-serving, and even willing to sell out their principles in order to win. Even now we can see them ridiculing the support of the young libertarian Republicans in our Party, and thumbing their noses at all the disillusioned Democrats and all of the registered voters in other 3rd Parties like the Constitution Party like they don't need them. Just like the poor fellow who got so accustomed to failing, that just for the sake of remaining true to his long standing tradition of losing, he could never quite bring himself to change his ways so he could actually win. It reminds me of the “Biblical parable of the harvest” when some of the workers complained that the most recent group of laborers who came in at the end of the harvest were being paid the same wages as those who were there at the beginning.

Our Party's leaders always seem to think that an empty suit is better than no suit at all. It seems to me that in American politics the end is already determined at the beginning, and that we like little sheep are all herded into the same pen by false political shepherds. Does it ever occur to you that some politicians love politics just a little too much? Is it any wonder that they seek public office as a pathway to power, wealth and lifelong job security? Do you really think that most politicians believe that the best interests of the nation and the cause of liberty are the only goals they are there to pursue?  When they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, only to ignore it later after they are comfortably established in their Washington offices, does the thought ever occur to you that this might have been their original intent from the very beginning? While there are certainly a handful of real,true American patriots on Capitol Hill, we hold them up as the exceptions to the rule, not as the rule, while the rest of those in Congress hold them at bay and marginalize their efforts.

In the 1980s Conservatives were initially very excited about the Republican Contract with America, but the teeth of that contract, if there ever were really any teeth, were traded away at the very beginning, and what little there remained that was actually worth anything of the Contract with America was of no lasting significance. If the grassroots of the Republican Party drew a firm line in the sand and said, “No, you can’t count on our votes anymore!  We won't buy your plan of moderation and compromise,” then you would be amazed at how many Republicans, Conservatives, libertarians, independents, and heretofore apathetic young college students would flock to the Republican Party. If we only had the courage to stand for something, many more people would actually join the Republican Party and rally to our cause. But we have to remain true to the principles of the Constitution, and come up with a real plan to make America great again. Presently we really don’t have anything to offer except the same old same old, so why would anyone even bother to register as a Republican?

The 2012 election cycle was run on the "Anybody but Obama" campaign platform just like the election before that was run on the "Not another four more years of George Bush" platform.  If you remember back only eight years ago to the 2004 Election, the Democratic campaign platform of then Vice President Al Gore was "Anybody but Bush". Democrats weren't very successful with that strategy. It didn't work for them and it isn't going to work for us now. It doesn't usually work against incumbents. “Trading in one sock puppet for another sock puppet” is not a great campaign slogan to help get out the vote.

The Bible is the defining source and the guidebook for the Christian life. Likewise the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the defining word for what America means to most conservatives.  To frame the current political debate among conservatives in a manner that is antithetical to their beliefs and principles is disheartening to say the least, but we hear it being done every day in the mainstream media. ‘Tis the point from which we have strayed and the milepost to which we must return in order to save our country. If we are to really be the Party that renews America then we must give the people something better to rally behind than just their next sock puppet.

May God Bless America and May God help us all.


"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth.
A journalist has no better friend than the truth."
- Scott Rohter

                  Share
Home Page