Posted by
Baisden Heys on Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:11:14 AM
Traditional conservative Republicans have been talking a great deal recently about leaving the GOP to form a third national political party. They are unhappy, not only with the liberal leanings of John McCain, but with the big spending, government growing ways of George W. Bush. And in general, they feel neo-conservatives have moved the party too far to the left. Some, in fact, already have left to join the Libertarian Party.
But neither is a good solution. First, even a cursory glance at the history of third parties shows they never gain enough support or political traction to truly affect local or state, much less federal policy. And it makes no sense for traditional conservatives (paleo-cons) to join the Libertarians when we disagree with so much of their policy.
The most obvious example is -- and this is an oversimplification -- the Libertarian belief that humans should be allowed to do whatever they want so long as it does not infringe on the freedoms of others. Traditional conservatives argue human freedom begins and ends with the freedom God as Creator has given us: the freedom to do what is right.
I agree with the sentiments of former President Ronald Reagan, in his now-famous 1975 speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee: “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.”
So I would argue that if there are enough disaffected conservative Republicans to form a third national party, then there are enough to organize and wrest control of the GOP back from the neo-cons who now control it. I believe we can regain control of the party, hold onto our core beliefs and build membership. Of course, to say it will take work is an understatement.
First, it will take a return and strict adherence to the principles that have always helped conservatives win strong public support: low taxes, small government, individual responsibility. The best example of the success of that approach is the 1994 Contract with America that helped sweep conservative Republicans into power in Congress. Subsequent years have shown clearly that when Republicans move to the left, they lose both credibility and elections.
It will take education. We must educate the public, not about the names, places and dates they learned in high school or college, but about the ideas that formed the United States. We must show them it is the conservative U.S. Constitution which gives “power to the people”, and that to keep that power for themselves, the Constitution must be preserved as the Founders wrote it and interpreted as they intended.
We also must counter the leftist trend that has dominated public education in the U.S. for decades. We must re-learn how critical it is to pass our values to our children, to show them both how and why conservative ideas have always created the most freedom, security and wealth for everyone, as well as how and why liberal-socialist ideas have created only slavery, danger and poverty throughout history. We must do that actively, and never assume our children will become conservative by osmosis.
It will take wresting control of the American legal system from the clutches of liberal law professors and jurists. Since the very founding of the Republic, nationalist (as opposed to federalist) judges have been responsible for subverting the intent of the Constitution. They, including the very first members of the Supreme Court, grabbed power for themselves, much more than the Constitution gives them, and have (unconstitutionally) imposed their personal beliefs on the country, masquerading those opinions as “constitutional law.”
(If you really wish to know how the Constitution was meant to be interpreted, ignore the Federalist Papers and read instead the Debates on the Constitution. That is where the final document was hammered out. They give a very clear idea of what the ratifiers of the document understood and intended it to mean.)
It will take outreach to minorities. We must show them how conservative values are what truly protect them from political and economic domination. We must show them they have a stake in this country and how they can take advantage of all it has to offer. The young of all races respond to truth and challenge. If we show them something is worth doing, they will join us.
It will take organization. Conservatives must learn how to effect and take advantage of grassroots organizing. Barak Obama is right about one thing: change does not happen from the top down, but from the bottom up. And if conservatives are going to save our nation, our culture and our party, we must do something now.
One problem is, and has always been, that conservatives are too busy being responsible, taking care of their jobs and careers, their families and themselves, to protest or march or organize. But they are going to have to make time, or surrender the fate of this nation to those who want to destroy it.
President Reagan’s 1975 remarks run parallel to those spoken by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius several millenia ago: "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."