{"id":4054,"date":"2009-01-22T08:56:22","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T13:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4054"},"modified":"2009-01-22T08:56:22","modified_gmt":"2009-01-22T13:56:22","slug":"battered-constituent-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4054","title":{"rendered":"Battered Constituent Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 1994, I left the GOP. \u00a0 A large part of the reason was the party’s caving-in on the 1994 “Crime Bill”, which served as sort of a high-water mark for gun control\u00a0 legislation.\u00a0 It (along with the 1996 Counterterrorism Act) was an attack on civil liberties like George W. Bush never attempted in the lefties’ most fevered deliria; sweeping-yet-irrational gun bans, wiretaps, property forfeiture and a shopping list of other atrocities against liberty.<\/p>\n

The Republicans – as opposed to conservatives – went along with it.\u00a0 So I left.<\/p>\n

“The GOP”, I told people who cared – which in those pre-blog days was pretty much nobody, “is perfectly happy to take us gunnies’ contributions and use up our shoe leather.\u00a0 But turning around and gutting the Second Amendment?\u00a0 Huh?”<\/p>\n

Larrey Anderson at AmThink is finding the same problem with conservatives and the GOP in general.<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservatives are the engine that drives the party…:<\/p>\n

The GOP heavily (almost exclusively) relies on conservatives for grassroots campaign workers and financial support. But the Republican Party has a long history of exploiting conservatives’ efforts and misusing conservatives’ financial contributions. In many ways, the situation is reminiscent of an abusive marriage. Is it time for conservatives to finally recognize the lies and abuse and move out of the house? Or is some sort of reconciliation still possible?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anderson notes that there’s really only one answer to that question:<\/p>\n

I will make my position clear from the outset. A divorce by conservatives from the GOP would be a disaster for all of the parties involved. Just like most marriages, the grass may look greener on the other side of the fence — but it almost always isn’t. This is true for the GOP and for conservatives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conservatism is the heart, the muscle and the feet of the party.<\/p>\n

The problem lies with too many people at the “Brain” (scare quotes intentional) level:<\/p>\n

The “big tent” speeches may be staple rhetoric of the GOP hierarchy; but, if conservatives pack up and leave, the GOP will be a big empty tent. (This mass migration would include the growing number of black and Hispanic conservatives in the GOP. These good hard working people are in the GOP because they understand and live by conservative principles — not because they are part of some equal opportunity RNC scheme.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s a great point: minority conservatives are like Minneapolis and Saint Paul conservatives; they have to swim upstream, and hard; the black, hispanic and asian Republicans I’ve met have been intense and very, very considered in their conservatism.\u00a0 Most of the dimmest RINOs seem to be the same crowd that makes the most obnoxious liberals; as white <\/a>as a Bachman-Turner Overdrive fan club.<\/p>\n

The GOP needs to understand, and it needs to understand this soon, that there is no Republican Party without conservatives — and conservatives need to start acting on this fact…Here are some tough love suggestions for how this can be done:<\/p>\n

(1) No more money. The first thing conservatives must do is stop giving any money to the GOP. All contributions must stop — at least for the short term. We have all received letters from the RNC that ask for money to help fight “liberal tax and spend Democrats.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heh.\u00a0 The joke’s been on us.<\/p>\n

(2) No more excuses. Conservatives must stop making excuses for the GOP and start demanding change. I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of defending the lightly veiled socialist policies of “compassionate conservatism.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m gratified to see some conservative GOP activists actually following through – moving to hold Republicans’ feet in the fire.\u00a0 The shredding of four of the “Override Six” at caucuses (four were denied endorsement; two retired, two lost at the polls) was, for all of Lori Sturdevant and the Sorosphere’s caterwaling, a wonderful sign.\u00a0 The rank and file does <\/em>get it.<\/p>\n

They just have to follow through.<\/p>\n

(3) No more manipulation. Republicans have manipulated conservatives for far too long with empty promises of governmental reform. John McCain received a standing ovation from the delegates at the RNC when he proclaimed the end of big government spending. In less than two months he suspended his campaign to fly back to Washington so that he could work and vote for the first bailout bill — the largest single government expenditure in peacetime history…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Senatitis kills.<\/p>\n

(4) New leadership now. The GOP must dump its current crop of congressional leaders. These men seem to be comfortable being in the minority. They know how to say “bi-partisan” and “compromise” — but they have no clue about how to say the simplest of words: “No.”<\/p>\n

Listen to House Minority Leader John Boehner’s take on his recent meeting with then President-elect Obama on the next trillion-dollar bailout. Listen to the words from his own website. Boehner wants “to craft a plan [trillion-dollar bailout — the sequel] that can pass in a bipartisan fashion.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here, I’m going to differ from Anderson – but only for a moment.<\/p>\n

Boehner’s a legislator – and he’s in the minority.\u00a0 The very word “politics” at its root means to compromise.\u00a0 While Boehner isn’t necessarily my choice to lead us in the House, it’s not his fault that the GOP fell flat in two straight elections – at least, far from his fault alone.<\/p>\n

It is <\/em>the GOP’s fault that over the past four years it has, at most levels,marginalized conservatives.\u00a0 Boehner is the symptom.<\/p>\n

(5) Finally, let’s take this bull by the horns. Conservatives need to start running for office. I know. I know. This is a daunting idea. But stop and think about it for a moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And not just Congress.<\/p>\n

That’s been my big push this past year,and will be a bigger one this year; conservative <\/em>Republicans need to get involved in local <\/em>politics, especially <\/em>in liberal gulags like Minneapolis and Saint Paul.\u00a0 They need to run for community councils, school boards, library boards, whatever is available.\u00a0 They also <\/em>need to seek and accept the myriad appointed positions that abound at all levels of government; sitting on budget boards, community planning and zoning councils, library boards, school board advisory committees, and on and on.\u00a0 This is not only how conservatives get to control parties; it’s how communities led by generations of intellectually corrupt fearmongering ideologues (I’m looking at you, Twin Cities) realize that conservatives don’t <\/em>drink the blood of infants, sacrifice old people, and light their cigars with bills pilfered from the poor.<\/p>\n

If Nancy Pelosi is fit to be the Speaker of the House, then at least 90% of the rest of America’s citizens are qualified to run for some public office. (This includes 99.99% of America’s conservative stay at home moms. Run ladies run!)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, then there’s the little matter of helping them withstand the character assassination that faces any woman or ethnic or social minority that comes out as a conservative<\/p>\n

But that’ll be a “smile problem”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 1994, I left the GOP. \u00a0 A large part of the reason was the party’s caving-in on the 1994 “Crime Bill”, which served as sort of a high-water mark for gun control\u00a0 legislation.\u00a0 It (along with the 1996 Counterterrorism Act) was an attack on civil liberties like George W. Bush never attempted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,72,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-mngop","category-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}