I believe Republicans and conservatives must agree on our core principles. St. Augustine called for ‘unity in the essentials, diversity in the nonessentials, and charity in all things,’ and while I believe there should always be a big GOP tent, there must also be a shared agreement on the essentials.Sorting the essential from the nonessentials is the hard part. Charity (the classical definition meaning love, or a positive attitude towards others) is mostly a matter of tone.
Unity in the Essentials
What are the essentials? The Constitution is a good starting point. Minimal government interference in markets and people's lives. Private sector solutions over government ones. Fiscal responsibility.
This is the line in the sand: Cross it, Mr. Politician, and you are no longer a Republican. If this list is too long, the GOP will be ideologically pure but unable to attract a majority. Make the list too short, and the party will stand for nothing, still unable to attract a majority... Kind of like it is now.
Diversity in the Nonessentials
Politics is about addition, not subtraction. Torch bearing, pitchfork wielding pogroms that run every last RINO out of town may be emotionally gratifying, but it's not how you build a party.
Let me start by saying I think popular culture and a vocal minority of society is hostile and intolerant to religious conservatives, especially Christians. My question is, can conservative Christians be charitable and tolerant of those who do not share their religious or social values?
Before you answer, recall that religious tolerance is a founding principle enshrined in the constitution. The founders thought belief in The Almighty to be essential to a free people but nonetheless consciously chose to not mandate it.
Can you welcome into the GOP tent gay financial wizards, lesbian intellectual Ayn Rand devotees, atheists, agnostics, lapsed Catholics? Hindus, profane money worshipers, deists, and even... *Gasp!*... Muslims? Surgeons who golf on Sunday morning instead of going to church, pro-choice free-market entrepreneurs...
Get used to the idea. All conservatives are not dedicated Christians. Some are not Christians at all. We can't turn these people away; we need to increase our numbers, and the GOP is a political movement, not a church.
Tolerating does not mean condoning. Our constitution tolerates believers and non-believers alike. We should do the same. Discriminating against someone for not believing or believing differently is just as wrong as preventing someone's outward expression of religious belief.
Charity in All Things
Many conservatives come off as mean and they need to stop it if they want to attract more people to their cause. Democrats have used fuzzy bunny, happy sappy tactics for years to great affect. What else can explain voters calling government tax and spend "caring and generous" while declaring letting you keep your own money "greedy?" The Democrats understand the propaganda war.
Would you accept advice from a mean-spirited, loathsome creature, even if it was really good advice and you could clearly see the benefit of it? (think Bill Maher, or Rosie O'Donnell) Probably not, they're so repulsive you'd refuse to listen. Well, it works the same it reverse: To much of the muddled middle, that's how many conservatives look.
It's all in the delivery. Just ask two-term popular ex-presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan. Both men were perpetual optimists with sunny attitudes, and each was the the most effective spokesman for his political movement. Deranged political opponents just couldn't steal their sunshine.
Finally, can we turn the Republican National Committee upside down and empty out all the country club republicans and woolly mammoths and replace them with 20-somethings and Hip Hop Conservatives? If we can't turn on the newest generation of voters to conservatism, this country is doomed.
10 comments:
Mark is all too right. The GOP needs to get back to a basic centrist conservative platform: Free market economics, Small Government, Less Government, Low Taxes, Balanced Budgets, and a strong Defense. We have allowed ourselves to be painted into a far right corner for too long. We need to get back to the basic constitutional principles of governance.
I don't want to see a successful GOP by the mere ammassing of numbers as its goal.
You've been hoodwinked into thinking its too far right by what you've been given to compare it to.
Core principles always look outdated and draconian when abject anarchy is on the move. And next year they look even moreso if you refuse to stand your ground.
SteveH
Amassing numbers is how you win elections.
I haven't been hoodwinked, and I'm not advocating anyone give up their beliefs. The GOP doesn't know how to sell the product of conservatism. The last eight years are exhibit A.
The sad thing is I'm not sure we'd be any better off if McCain had won the election. The election was relatively close...swing a few million votes and McCain would have won. If that had happened would you feel any better about the state of our economy or our country? Maybe marginally so. If all the GOP does is compromise to create a larger party, yeah, maybe they'll win the next election. But what will change?
Let's turn for a moment to look at what the UAW and its membership has done to the US auto industry. With their ever more ridiculous agreements they basically destroyed their own industry. Now, imagine the US public as the UAW membership, and the gov't as the UAW. The analogy is stunning. We're destroying our own country ourselves. Until we, the people and our leaders, recognize that nothing will change, no matter which party wins elections.
I think our party system helped create this mess, so I don't see how we get out of it unless we overcome that system. Eventually the house of cards in which we're living is going to collapse. At that point some real, new, non-traditional leader will step forward and get noticed, and get elected. Until then (unfortunately), I don't see any reason to be optimistic about anything.
I don't think anyone here has been hoodwinked, with the possible exception of yourself. The party platform is not a static document, it changes to adapt to circumstances at every election. The party is it's members, the core principals change over time to reflect it's members values...which presumably for the Republican Party is conservative government.
As Silverfiddle said, the last 8 years are exhibit A... Despite the fact that in many ways it was not 'conservative' I gave the Bush administration my support for the past eight years, that doesn't mean I need to follow it into the grave. Now is the time to redefine our party to position it to best take on the future and in the opinion of many, that is getting BACK to the core values of conservatism and small government from which we have strayed.
~Finntann~
Russel: I've thought the same thing you have: What if McCain had won? I came to the same sad conclusion as you.
I also agree with you about what the party system has done to our country, but I don't see an alternative.
Maybe hoodwinked was a bad choice of words and i apologise. I'm just frustrated by what i see as an incremental departure by ALL politicians of anything resembling conservatism.
SteveH
You're not alone in your frustration, bro, trust me. The issue is what should conservatives do about it?
Many of my fellow Freepers think some third party or the Libertarian party is the answer. I disagree although I am more of a libertarian than a republican. Breaking off from the GOP and starting something new would guarantee even bigger Dem majorities.
My proposed solution is for constitutionalists and libertarians to pull a GOP coup and and hang the country club republican leadership (figuratively, of course).
One problem is that political ideas are no longer debated on their merits, but marketed in the same way that gives us 40 songs at any one time atop the billboard charts. Theres nothing magical or written in stone about what songs happen to rise to the top. Other than people in power who choose to give it exposure.
SteveH
SteveH: That's an astute observation. You should start blogging.
I'll take your observation one step further. We The People are no longer participants in making the music. We now just sit back and listen to whatever crap they pipe to us.
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