In the wake of the election results, which shocked many, if not most, conservatives (including me), I’ll go out on a limb and offer a prescription to Republicans in the House and Senate.
1) Even when Democrats have been out of power – either in the White House or in the legislative branch – they have been obstreperous, obstructionist and highly partisan. I see no reason for Republicans not to be the same way. What conservatives want to see is the aggressive pursuit of our central principles. We would rather see our party as a tiger temporarily caged than as a rabbit scampering pell-mell for the illusory safety of the tall grass. People will eventually rally around a banner that is stoutly defended - even when that banner stands for something false and reprehensible, as the Democrats have proved time and again. How much more likely it will be that people, in time, shall rally around something that is true and good. If we believe what we say about the importance of individual liberty and smaller, less intrusive government, and about respect for the Constitution, then these truths have not become falsehoods through the unfortunate setback presented by one election.
2) If the principles we advocated yesterday were right and just, they are right and just today. It is not only economically detrimental, but an immoral concession to the aggressors in the class war, to blithely state that increasing taxes on the “rich” is no big deal after all, or that Obamacare has somehow attained the status of a law of physics. Continue to denounce bad policies and the ideological motives behind them.
3) Recognize, once and for all, that the mainstream media are the enemy. Talk through them, over them, around them – but talk. And don’t just talk; declaim, argue, attack. Attack the media as well as their masters, challenge them, show them up for the leftist mercenaries they are.
4) From here on in, you are not just opposing whoever the Democratic president or presidential nominee happens to be. Certainly, you’ll go after him (or her), too; but in the war of ideas, you are not simply fighting one man or woman; you are fighting an entire political party and its widespread apparatus, in the unions, in the academy, and in the press. Don’t just tar the man; tar his worldview, his allies, his supporters – the whole ideological infrastructure that props him up.
5) You cannot genuinely compromise with people who are working around the clock to destroy your way of life (and perhaps you into the bargain). Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi. These are not just “people like you and me.” They are deeply flawed, incomplete human beings who fill the void of wisdom and understanding with arrogance and hatred, little tin pot Lucifers seeking to overthrow God and the natural law, high-stakes gamblers who see the generality of mankind as chips in their game of personal power, and for whom dishonesty is but a tool of their trade.
6) Fair warning: do not sell our birthright so that you may obtain a mess of potage.
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Deborah Leigh said...Republicans should need to get back to the basics which history records as the party that fought the Democrats to end slavery, give women the right to vote, and for civil rights.
ReplyDeleteThe PR department should be working overtime to dispell common myths that Republicans are rich, white, women-immigrant-environment haters. They need to fight fire with fire, in other words, use some of Alinsky's tactics against the Democrats. But it takes a backbone and a pair. Republicans should never become Democrat-lite.
This is war! But the generals on the Hill are uninformed. Read "Obama's Rules For Revolution" by David Horowitz. It can be purchased at the Freedom Foundation.
Haven't you been paying attention? All the pundits are saying that the only way for the Republicans to be competitive with the Democrats is by becoming Democrats themselves.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm... that sounds almost like Nietzsche. "He who fights Democrats, must take care lest he thereby become a Democrat."
If Democrats are anything like lefty parties in other parts of the world, they will start to fight amongst themselves.... something about high-taxing, big-government parties, I guess - the self-righteousness and large amounts of other people's money involved inevitably causes bitter rivalries and fighting over the spoils.
ReplyDeleteTimT: We can only hope.
ReplyDeleteYes, now that they have convinced themselves of a "mandate", it's time for a round of intra-mural back-stabbing and progressive one-upsmanship. Diatribes will be flung, and sub-standard progressives purged.
ReplyDeleteShould be fun.
The main obstacle is the mainstream media. They're not on our side and will do everything in their power to keep the low-information voter low-information. I expect a full-on assault on the internet very soon.
ReplyDeleteSome kind of "fairness doctrine" (which is Orwellian for anything but fairness) for the Web, eh RebeccaH? Maybe they'd call something like "Net Neutrality"...
ReplyDeleteAlas, I don't believe there are any generals on the Hill...or anywhere else in National politics, that I can see, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe backbones and pairs are at State level or below...and those are few and far between.