Do Republicans really want to change course – or just ‘win’?By Jon Dougherty on November 3, 2013 The Sunday Read There has been much written lately about the internal struggle within today’s Republican Party between the Establishment faction and Tea Party conservatives. This is a battle we conservatives ought to cherish, for it has been a long time coming. Here is how the battle lines have been drawn: 1. The knock against the Establishment has been, essentially, that the faction consists of multi-term, fat cat insiders who have long since lost touch with their constituencies and the Constitution, and who generally favor big government like their liberal counterparts. The differences, claim those who criticize this faction, between them and Democrats are minimal, and that both want to drive the nation over the cliff, though the Establishment GOP wants to drive a little slower than their Democratic friends. 2. The Tea Party faction, meanwhile, has been criticized by everybody, really, but the most harsh critiques has come from the Establishment GOP and Consultant Class. Their beef? Tea Party faithful are essentially being too conservative – too much so for pragmatic, practical and political purposes, but also too much so to win elections. That last part is especially interesting, because it ignores the realities of a sustained string of Tea Party victories dating back to 2008. That said, of the two sides of the argument, the criticism of Tea Party members is most instructive for this reason: Any member of Congress calling themselves a Republican who denounces, demagogues or attempts to destroy a fellow party member for espousing traditional conservative principles of less government and fiscal restraint – instead of directing such vitriol at liberal Democrats – has wandered too far off the GOP farm. To the Establishment, there is no fight worth fighting if it can’t be won, which is akin to saying there are no principles left that are worth fighting for. I get that picking your political battle might sound tactically superior, but to not fight at all is to send the message that there is little left you really believe in, other than wanting to get along with Democrats, your supposed opponents. Which is why I believe the Tea Party faction of the GOP is so much more popular with Mr. and Mrs. Republican Voter – because members of this faction don’t mind rolling their sleeves up and making a stand for core conservative principles, no matter the odds of winning. And what’s more, they know who the political enemy is – practitioners of liberalism, a Marxist ideology which has permeated every governing institution on the federal level and which is slowly, but surely, destroying the founding principles of our country. Prediction: If any faction can draw more Americans into the “big tent,” it will be the Tea Party, because its members’ essential message is one of liberty, freedom, individual rights and free market principles. And those principles appeal to people: -- Less government, not more. -- Fewer faceless, unelected bureaucrats making important decisions about your life, not more. -- A reduction of the costly and burdensome regulatory nature of the fourth branch of government, the Administrative State, so that businesses can spend less on “compliance” and more and employees. -- Support for the notion that yes, sometimes Americans need a hand up, but they should not expect perpetual hand outs. -- A belief in, and support for, true freedom of religion – not government- or court-ordered rules limiting expression. -- A reduction in the Executive Branch’s ability to use an army of bureaucrats and a corps of agencies to impose his will, in circumvention of the people’s representatives. These are all principles that Republicans of all stripes once embraced. But no longer. Now, the Old Guard Establishment – led by John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and others – spend hours on talk shows denouncing not Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, but Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee. Why? Because if we dumb down our principles and “moderate” our views, the Old Guard and GOP Consultancy Class believes, we’ll “win elections.” And if we “win elections,” then we can win political battles and govern. Well, alright. Let’s look at that. The last time this happened was during six years of the two-term presidency of George W. Bush. And what did conservatives get when the Old Guard ran things? The Patriot Act. The Transportation Security Administration. No Child Left Behind. TARP. Medicare Part D. NSA domestic spying. What in that list of things – had you not known which administration and party passed them – would have led you to believe they weren’t laws and initiatives imposed by Democrats? Is that what we are to expect from now on when “Republicans win elections?” Based on the Old Guard’s constant criticism of the Tea Party faction, I’d say the answer is yes. Conservatives are not happy to merely “win.” We want to first win the battle of ideals, which we believe we can do and which will then translate into election victories, and then we want to govern. Because our form of governance is what it will take to reverse course and keep our nation from crashing headlong into the fiscal abyss or becoming the Soviet Union but with better condos. The Republican Establishment has sold out to the trappings of influence and office. They really do believe that Washington is show business, but for ugly people. They have all but abandoned the core conservative principles that have underpinned the Grand Old Party for more than a century. And worse, they have no intentions of returning to the fold. So they must go. The battle lines have been drawn. Let’s fight this fight. Our country’s future – our children’s future – hangs in the balance. Jon Dougherty Jon Dougherty is the managing editor of Absolute Rights, and a former reporter, columnist and news editor for WorldNetDaily, Newsmax, and Newsroom America, and he has been a policy analyst at Citizens United and Freedom Alliance. A current member of the Army National Guard, Jon is a veteran of Afghanistan (2009-2010), where he served in the field as a public affairs specialist for a route clearance battalion. He holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Ashford University and is pursuing a master of arts in national security/intelligence analysis from American Military University. He is the author of Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by Our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border (WND Books, 2004), and Election 2000: How the Military Vote was Suppressed (VitualBookworm, 2000).
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:59:27 +0000
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