Topic category: Other/General
Distinguishing Conservatives from Democrats, Republicans and Leftists
At the risk of belaboring a story which is now almost a month old, Republicans lost the November 2006 election because the Washingtonian branch of the Republican Party had forgotten that conservatives, who constitute in every Battleground Poll sixty percent of the American electorate (and that is sixty percent even when moderates, liberals and can’t decides each have their own separate percentage), want conservative government.
Republicans in Washington seem not to have followed the advice of Rush Limbaugh when tabbed him the “Majority Maker” twelve years ago. He warned them not to become Washingtonians. He warned them not to listen to political insiders and professional politicos. He was right.
People who vote conservative do not vote to advance interest politics. Interest politics is Leftism. All Leftism is, in fact, is a polyglot and quarreling group of political tribes whose only concern is how to overrun, like Huns, civilized society and then to split up their ill-gotten spoils or how to intimidate tribute from civilized society in lieu of conquest, sacking, rapine and burning.
Conservatives wanted men and women who would protect us from Mongols, Vandals, Vikings and other political parties whose aim was to produce nothing, contribute nothing and to seize all that they could. Conservatives did not want our putative leaders to become Mongols, Vandals and Vikings who won booty for us.
What was one of the keystones of the Republican Revolution of 1994? Term limits! And when Democrats voted against term limits, Republican congressmen who had taken a three year pledge honored that pledge (like former Congressman Coburn, and now Senator Coburn, a true icon to conservative principles.) Republicans were also against unfunded mandates for states (which is no different than unfunded mandates for prescription drugs.) They pushed through something like a taxpayer bill of rights. They cut taxes. These things motivated conservatives.
What has happened? While Republicans, rightly, complain that Democrats won with no agenda, what exactly was the agenda of Republicans? Where was the Contract With America, Part Two? It was conspicuous by its absence.
If the Left is nothing but interest (i.e. booty and pillage) politics, then what are conservatives? They, too, are a polyglot group of people – evangelical Christians, objectivists, Orthodox Jews, patriotic Americans, social conservatives, libertarians – but what unites them? Principles!
The Pro-Life movement gets nothing but jail time for protesting at abortion clinics (they certainly get no federal funds.) Libertarians do not profit from their libertarianism, but from the pleasure of telling the truth. The men and women who volunteered to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq did not do so out of self-interest, but rather out of selfless patriotism. Evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews try to please the Blessed Creator, and not themselves.
What do these people want from government? We want protection from Leftists and other thieves. These diverse conservatives simply want to live their lives in peace, safe from enemies abroad and from robbers at home dressed up in pious causes but with mercenary interests. They want the promise which was once America and which can become again America.
They do not want a sack full of goodies from Washington. They do not want “congressmen for life” or “senators for life,” even if they belong to our triumphant hordes. Why, I wonder, did Republicans not push for legislation to end all gerrymandering at the state legislative and congressional level when it would have benefited America, but maybe cost them a few congressional seats? Now it may be too late. Why, I wonder, did Republicans not push through state legislatures a constitutional amendment against term limits and challenge Democrats to defend their votes at that level? Now it may be too late.
The sad answer is that Republicans wanted too much to become last generation’s Democrats, and that is the last thing that conservatives wanted. There is hope. Leftism is still a weak, disunited, squabbling confederation of barbarians. What conservatives must do is regain principles and then make those principles concrete proposals which we push incessantly. What we need are fewer glitzy ads or get out the vote campaigns, and more explicit statements of what we will do with power.
I suggest that we look less at political polls and more at value polls. Make our next Contract With America conform to ten very popular conservative proposals, which the Republican nominee should sign off on, and then make sure everyone in America knows what conservatives will do with power, if the America voters trust us again in 2008.
Bruce Walker
Biography - Bruce Walker
Bruce Walker has been a published author in print and in electronic media since 1990. He is a regular contributor to WebCommentary, Conservative Truth, American Daily, Enter Stage Right, Intellectual Conservative, NewsByUs and MenŐs News Daily. His first book, Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie by Outskirts Press was published in January 2006.