The Fight Conservatism Faces, Part II

Last week, I wrote about the internal battle the conservative movement faces.  Suffice to say, I do not believe the coming year will be pleasant.  If we are to convince people that were are a worthy and effective ideological force, we cannot do so while fighting amongst ourselves.

This week, I want to write about why the coming year will not be pleasant due to much bigger threats beyond the movement.  Namely, President Obama and the progressives.  The reelection of the president bodes ill for the nation.

November's debacle made two things clear: It maintained the status quo with regards to our elected officials and ensured that the progressive left will try harder than ever to push their ideology in the coming years.  Despite the slim popular vote margin by which Barack Obama won, many on the left seem to believe his re-election is a mandate for him to push farther to the left and force through even more unpopular, destructive legislation. 

"You know, I really admire Vladimir's political skill..."

As you may recall, President Obama once told former Russian president Medvedev that November would be his "last election" and he would be "more flexible" after.  That unguarded moment says much about his plans for this term.  Since it was his last election, it means that he will not have future elections to hold him accountable for his actions.  For someone like the president, who wishes to "fundamentally transform" the country, not having to worry about popularity is a boon.  It frees him to be the radical his writings and history tells us he is.

Already, the left is hard at work attempting to curb the 2nd Ammendment.  Shamelessly using the Newtown, Connecticut mass murder, they are attempting to curb our rights.  Support of gun ownership is likely too high for them to succeed, however, their anti-gun crusade is evidence of how they will approach debates in the coming years.  They assuming that winning immunizes them from being opposed.

They assume that winning allows them to ignore the Constitution.

I believe we can expect two major trends in the coming years.  The first is that, assuming the Republicans in congress actually grow a spine and begin to block major legislation from the the president without capitulating, there will be a dramatic increase in executive orders.  As the gun control debate has shown us, many of the president's supporters have no qualms with the use of executive orders to circumvent congress.  They effectively have no problem with the president behaving like a dictator or a king to ensure that the progressive agenda is implemented.  It is truly frightening how their desire for power and their agenda overides any sense of the rule of law and leaves them with no care to follow it.

We should also be prepared for even fiercer attempts to marginalize conservatives and libertarians in the coming years.  Remember, many on the left views those of us on the right side of the ideological spectrum as not just wrong, but evil.  We are not worth listening to and indeed, do not deserve a place in the discussion to begin with.  We can expect every effort taken to make us seem small and insignificant before 2014's midterm elections.

It will be a tough road ahead.  We must be prepared to weather it.

Firing a Few Rounds

Honestly, you can not be completely surprised I have a few rounds left to fire off in the circular tent squad.  I already unleashed most of the clip in my first election analysis.  However, there are two other things I want to address.

First is Chris Christie.  I have heard a lot of people blaming him for the election loss, though I feel that is a lot more emotion than deep analysis.  It is pretty easy to knee-jerk against a guy who embraces the most dangerous president since Woodrow Wilson.

That said, I think they may be preparing to kiss here.

That being said, I do assign a very small portion of blame to Chris Christie.  The problem was not Governor Christie's complimenting of Barack Obama.  The problem is that he complimented him, at best, for getting nothing done.  At worst, he complimented Obama for a job badly done.  Power was inevitably going to return slowly considering how widespread the damage was.  The real problem lay and still lies in what is happening while the power remains unrestored, particularly the logistical nightmare triggered by the disruption of commerce.  People starve, freeze and live in filth as long as that has not recovered.

Yet, FEMA under Obama, much like under Bush, was woefully unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.  And Chris Christie complimented him on a job well done, a move which I have no doubt helped to solidify the appearance of Barack Obama being in control, despite people suffering a week later when the polls opened.  He complimented the president for doing a few photo-ops in a bomber jacket.

Ultimately, I think that the governor killed any prospects he had of national office.  While I do not hate him like some seem to now, I am immensely disappointed in the man.  No one should be in the business of giving undeserved accolades, whether because they are blind, for the sake of their own reelection (Christie will be up for reelection next year) or just to seem bipartisan.

Finally, my last problem is with those people who believe that the Republican party should divorce itself from the social wing.  This seems to come up every election (often from liberals...hm...) and frankly, I think is a foolish idea to consider.

For one, social conservatives bring the bulk of the energy and enthusiasm to the GOP fold.  Additionally we have numbers that moderates lack.  Splitting the party along these lines would shrink the influence of conservatives and right-leaning libertarians as they would fight amongst themselves more to vie for influence than come together.  The Republican party serves, in many ways, as a means to smooth over the differences between the two and allow them to face the left side of the aisle with greater unity.

The other problem is approaching moderates as some sort of monolithic block.  I believe this to be silly, at best.  The fact of the matter is, everyone who claims to be moderate/independent leans one way or the other.  It is not a matter of dumping social conservatives to appeal to these people; it is a matter of making a cogent argument to them in the first place.  I do not believe conservative values will fail to resonate with people when articulated clearly. 

Moderate candidates cannot do this and that, I believe, is where the problem truly lies.  As long as we keep selecting Doles, McCains and Romneys to represent conservatism on a national stage, we will continue to fail.  Now, I do think it is reasonable to debate which issues should take precedence.  Dropping certain planks because they are politically inconvenient is not the solution, however.

I believe the Democrats and progressive recognize our weaknesses when we choose moderates.  It is why they goad us into considering dumping certain ideologies and morals, particularly when elections go their way.  They wish to use this period of post-election soul searching to divide us further.  The least I can ask is that we don't fall for this kind of silly, knee-jerk stupidity.

Since there is one more big, very important topic that I wish to discuss, there will be one last blog post tomorrow or Tuesday.  Until then, readers!

Also, I hope you spent at least a little time today thinking about the veterans in your life.