How, Why the Republican Party has Failed both America
and Conservatives and What's to Be Done about It
Liberal Yahoo and the ultra- liberal Associated Press have both shown great insight and generated greater incitement (stimulus to action) for the opposing parties in the November elections and outlined how they’ll probably play out . . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100705/ap_on_el_ge/us_nationalized_election
In the excellent article linked just above, Charles Babington of the AP says that “Democrats and Republicans are framing the elections in starkly different terms, with GOP strategists painting it as a national referendum on President Barack Obama and the party in power, and Democrats working feverishly to make all politics local.” Rajjpuut who, in his school teaching days could boast of coaching several Colorado State Chess Team Champions, agrees whole-heartedly because the art of politics should be successfully conducted as a strategic magic act for the have nots; and a strategic trench warfare for the haves. Just as the Democrats were in most people’s eyes, the haves in 2006 and 2008 (they were perceived as having the issues on their side); in 2010, clearly conservatives have the issues favoring them. In a larger sense, however, this strategic view clearly underlines the failings of the Republican Party to represent the needs of the nation and of its conservatives over the last 109 years as Progressivism^^ has progressively brought the country more and more evil and closer and closer to utter ruin.
When good men fail to act effectively, evil gains a toe-hold. When good men fail to understand their cause, evil makes its case. When good men fail to act, evil comes to power. When good men fail to act and to understand, evil comes to dominate. When good men act wrongly either by failing to act or failing to understand or both evil WINS. This short paragraph outlines why and how the Republican Party has failed conservatives and the country in the past, is failing them now, and will (unless serious change occurs) continue to fail conservatives and America in the future. More on this later
. . . .
When coaching his scholastic champion chess teams, Rajjpuut made a point of hammering away at tactics as a blended-subsidiary to strategy so that whether elementary, middle school or high schoolers were involved . . . the big picture always stood out stark and clear: own the center, develop and coordinate your pieces, before you touch a piece or pawn (touch-move rule in championship events) prefer attack to defense; then stop, ask yourself the question “What could go wrong?” If nothing could go wrong, you’ve selected your move and except for finding a better one which also has no downside . . . you’re moving toward victory. Throw in good tactics and knowing how to crush in the endgame and victory was virtually assured.
This approach was gained from studying management principles at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas via the Kepner-Tregoe Management System . . . clearly the Republican Party could benefit from understanding and complying with good management principles, the basic economic and constitutional imperatives of Republicanism, and the underlying common sense fundamentals of free market economics.
Our neighborhood was recently plagued by a Democratic campaign worker for the more liberal of that party’s senate candidates (Ex-speaker of the state house Romanoff who was running against semi-moderate Bennett. Romanoff had been considering running for governor but didn’t wish to contest the seat against popular ex-Denver mayor and the whole nation is, thanks to Obama’s efforts to influence Romanoff to drop the race against Bennett as well as the Sestak issue in Pennsylvania, aware of this particular race). The fellow was a polite and curious sort and discussed politics with Rajjpuut for roughly 25 minutes. Here’s what impressed him – our progresive opposition -- the most:
1. That our $13 TRillion national debt was the least of our problems.
2. That the $110 TRillion in unfounded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare and the federal side of Medicaid) were not being addressed by either party.
3. That congress had recently done a great thing with its Pay-Go law requiring that before any new spending measure can be passed a way to pay for it either by instituting a new tax or by cutting spending be found . . . . but that congress had since passing that law refused to use Pay-go even once since, just as it had failed to honor the set-asides for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and thus since 1934 has built up that $110 TRillion in unfunded liabilities.
4. That Obama has told the nation his energy policies will “necessarily make the price of electricity skyrocket” and that he’s told the San Francisco Chronicle his policies will “bankrupt the coal industry.”
5. That Obama has promised (threatened?) to create five million new green jobs when green technology is NOT yet viable. That Spain in 1997 led Europe with a booming economy and only 3% unemployment before they turned to green jobs and today Spain has 21% unemployment and is, next to Greece, the weakest economy in Europe. That according to a Spanish study each green job required $667,000 in subsidies which cost the real economy 2.2 jobs. And because only 10% of the green jobs proved permanent (the vast majority lasted from three months to eighteen months) that meant that IF Obama instituted his five million green jobs it was likely that only 500,000 of them would prove permanent at the cost of eleven million jobs in the real (unsubsidized) economy a 22/1 ratio that perfectly explains why Spain’s economy went south.
6. Yes, green tech would be ideal, but green tech is not yet viable. So it would make much more sense instead of subsidizing $677,000 for one green job . . . to subidize instead $6.77 Billion for research for the top hundred winners in green-tech viability from a national contest judged by the best scientists available and seeing if that stimulus can get us a green-tech Edison and a highly desirable green-tech future based on independent American innovation.
7. And tah-dah! more than anything else the following information impressed the Democrat and he took down the particulars to research later on his home computer:
A. This crucial website (the most famous brief essay in ecomics and the simple and utter refutation of Keynesian approaches such as Obama’s stimulus-stimulus and more stimulus approaches) explains what free markets are and what their strengths are:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html
B. Information about this site:
http://jim.com/econ/
and after hearing the “one lesson” (from “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt, linked just above) he too realized that: when you look at economic situations which present themselves you must get the whole picture not just the supposedly desirable government spending stimulus plan. And then illustrating the one lesson with the briefest of fables: “The Broken Window Parable,” which utterly and totally caught him by surprise and clearly delighted him (both linked right here) . . .
http://jim.com/econ/chap01p1.html
http://jim.com/econ/chap02p1.html
Thus we now come to the logical question, how has the Republican Party failed the nation and its conservatives for 109 years? Remembering that Rajjpuut is a Libertarian and NOT a Republican and that the Republican Party is the minority party in this country . . . .
A. Republicans have failed to understand who and what the enemy is. That enemy is and has been Progressivism and Progressives since Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, became the first notable Progressive. Not saying that Teddy Roosevelt didn’t do any good . . . just that he was the first president to champion Progressive causes which later in the hands of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and to a lesser extent Bill Clinton and George W. Bush led us to our present disastrous economic collapse. Republicans haven’t been able to effectively oppose progressivism and get support against progressivism from would-be conservatives because they don’t understand it themselves.
B. Most Republicans do NOT understand Republicanism (the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution is the most Republican document in the history of the world; and the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights taken in conjunction with the doctrine of Separation of Church and State are by far the most important parts of the Bill of Rights the spark plug for all the other Amendments) and . . . because they do NOT understand Republicanism, they cannot and do not explain Republicanism well and thus educate liberal, Democratic-conservative and independent-conservative voters.
C. Many Republicans continuously and deliberately violate Republicanism by opposing Separation of Church and state in Public Schools. The Founding Fathers (virtually all of them Christian) did NOT set up a Christian nation, they deliberately set up a nation where ALL religions would be welcome but in which no one particular religion could dominate (remembering the problems with England's state supported church) and endanger our freedoms. If you want one reason why Independent and Democratic conservatives are more likely to abstain or to vote Democtat, this is the one.
D. Two isues here, Republican corruption as shown in sexual and business scandals on the one hand and the simple fact that most Republicans have ceaselessly been UNTRUE to fundamental Republican principles such as fiscal conservativism; limited federal government; adherence to the Constitution; protection of our borders; and balanced budgets. Most Americans are conservative on these issues and have been routinely disappointed by Republican candidates promising to adhere to these principles and then abandoning them once in office. ALL Americans are conservative on political integrity.
E. Anti-abortion and even Anti-contraception are linked in much of the public’s collective mindset as Republican values. History has linked the Republican Party to this stance and it is why many women vote for Democrats. If Republicans had a stance that the Independent voter could buy into that would be one thing, and it would probably NEVER cost even one vote. However, Republicans have adopted a losing argument and paraded it before the public as the most visible aspect of Republicanism.
That losing argument is that abortion should be denied to victims of incest; victims of rape; mothers whose health is endangered; very young girls; and other victims in extraordinary cases.
Americans pride themselves on rooting for the underdog and the victim and consider old Republican opposition to contraception and family planning as totally unjustified state interference (10th Amendment again) into their personal lives.
Because that old Republican stance is so unwieldy, progressive opponents have made the Republican Party look outdated and uncaring. Abortion (unfortunately abortion virtually on demand), has been the law of the land for thirty-eight years now. One could argue that abortion (freedom over one’s body in exigent circumstances like those named above) and contraception and the resulting freedom to plan one’s family size and spacing are actually Republican causes, but in any case, because the Republican Party deliberately adopted the losing argument outlined in italics above . . . for most voters abortion on demand by contrast to the obdurate Republican stand seemed preferable. For women, in particular, this hardened Republican anti-victim stand has made the Republican Party a political destination to avoid.
To sum it up: politics is a game of strategy and tactics. The United States Constitution is the greates winning political game plan ever created. The U.S. Constitution is a decidedly conservative document designed to protect state, county, and local freedoms as well as individual freedoms against the ever-present tendency of centralized governments to expand and become more expensive and more intrusive. We are now in big trouble because for roughly 109 years, the Republican Party, the standard-bearer for conservativism has not stood strong against progressivism. In all strategic encounters, the basic rule of victory is this: find a strategic and tactical path that makes your own strengths the single most important consideration at issue and your opponent’s strengths of negligible import, while effectively managing your own weaknesses and exposing your opponent’s weaknesses and making them them of paramount importance. So let it be written, so let it be done . . . .
Right now and for all the foreseeable future, only overt and honorable conservativism (fiscally and Constitutionally) can save us. The Republican Party needs to re-invent itself in light of and in line with the party’s original conservative, Libertarian values (fiscal and Constitutional conservativism, strong borders and strong national defense, and largely a live-and-let- live social** agenda). No single election has been more crucial in the history of our country and the Republican Party must deliver or the nation is quite likely LOST!
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
** for example, gay unions are fine and allow them all the rights of cohabiting common-law people, but don’t call it marriage and NEVER allow gay adoption^^ It's important for ALL thinking Americans to carefully consider this definition of Progressivism: "The perceived need to 'progress' beyond our 'out-dated' and 'ill-conceived' United States Constitution." Rajjpuut believes this is NOT only the most accurate definition of progressivism but also the most telling of the evil inherent in that movement. Progressivism in practice becomes a creeping (Fabian) socialism and moves the nation toward utter statism and communism.
