PrintOctober 29, 2009
Divide and Conquer
Next year will see the most important midterm election in many years. The coalition necessary to vote out of office those congressmen who support President Obama's effort to turn the country into a socialist utopia is still fractured and pursuing individual agendas.
It is part of the Democratic Party's strategy to keep the electorate divided and at odds with each other.
In today's world of sound bites and miniscule attention spans, a simple sentence -- "There isn't a bit of difference between Republicans and Democrats" -- has become embedded in the nation's political mentality. It has also become the foundation of the strategy to split what is a right-of-center country into many factions. In fact, this axiom assured the election of the present left-wing government in Washington.
History has shown that with our representative republican form of government (combined with the effect of 50 individual states and an independent executive branch), only a two-major-party arrangement is viable. Throughout the history of the United States, the tension between the major parties has generally ebbed and flowed in tandem with the central government's fluctuating involvement in the day-to-day activity of the citizens. That gulf has never been wider than it is today.
The current Democratic Party overwhelmingly comprises interest groups that believe a powerful central government is essential to guarantee their predetermined "equitable" outcomes. The Republican Party membership, in even greater numbers, is dominated by those who believe government (per the founders) should be limited and the rights of the individual paramount.
Virtually all polling over the past twenty-five years confirms that the majority of Americans believe in limited government and are loath to grant Washington too much power. Yet in 2008, the country elected a President and Congress that are the most radical in our history, the antithesis of what the preponderance of the people claim to want.
In the 1992 presidential election, Ross Perot ran on and promoted the "Perot Doctrine": there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. That theme resonated sufficiently to give him 19% of the popular vote, the highest amount ever achieved by a third-party candidate. This development assured the election of Bill Clinton and established the game plan on how to split the coalition that had handed the Republicans the presidency by a landslide in three previous elections. There has been no such margin of victory for either party since.
Over the past seventeen years, the Perot Doctrine has been repeated ad nauseam by many conservative and libertarian talk show hosts. It has become a consistent theme for myriad columns and articles, and it has been confirmed by some so-called conservative intellectuals who claim that the Era of Reagan is dead and we must all become "socialist lite." Using this backdrop, the left has conceived the ideal strategy to divide the right-of-center vote and give the Democrats control of all the levers of power despite the wishes of the majority of the citizens.
There are four distinct factions among the groups that make up the right of center majority.
The first are the single-issues voters. The Democrats quickly learned that mere well-delivered words would successfully affect this demographic. For example, in the most recent election, Barack Obama -- an unabashed promoter of unfettered abortion rights and suffocating gun control -- proclaimed himself a Christian seeking to make abortion rare and an opponent of gun control legislation. Because of his ability to deliver a convincing speech, Mr. Obama won the Catholic vote and a much higher percentage of the evangelical and pro-gun voters than any of the previous six Democratic nominees for President. After all, since there is no difference between the parties, he couldn't possibly be so bad.
The second faction is the fiscal-conservative-but-social-liberal voters. Recall Senator Obama's move to the center during the campaign, when he pledged not to raise taxes on 95% of the people and to control spending. These were deliberate lies; there was nothing in his background to substantiate such promises. As there is no difference between the parties, however, these voters went with the candidate for the House, Senate, and the White House who said the right thing well.
The third and fourth groups are even more easily manipulated. These are the ideological purists and leave-me-alone fundamentalists. These two factions are constantly on alert to any real or perceived drift from their established set of beliefs, be it behavioral or policy-oriented. If a Republican member of Congress or a Republican President strays from any one of a series of tenets, then the entire party -- rather than the individual -- is blamed. The key for the Democrats is to get these folks to stay home or vote for a conservative-sounding Democrat to punish the sinners.
Thus we had the campaign to portray the entire Republican Party in Congress as corrupt, prodigal, and unresponsive to their constituents. Thus we had the campaign to portray President Bush as an illiterate, incompetent fool who besmirched the Republican brand. With the Perot Doctrine ringing in their ears, the purists and leave-me-alone fundamentalists simply threw up their hands and stayed on the sidelines, leaving the playing field to the Left.
As a corollary to the manipulation of the ideological purists, the Left soon discovered an effective way to intimidate the elected Republicans or party leaders: find and exploit individual examples of corruption, misspoken words, perceived insensitivity, and false charges of racism. With the help of a sympathetic media, the Left projected a maelstrom of scurrilous accusations against the entire party, in essence claiming all Republicans were (fill in the blank). Unfortunately, many within the conservative press unwittingly promoted the same worldview instead of actively refuting it.
The Republican Party leadership has spinelessly refused to stand up to this game plan. Eminent Republicans shy away from countering the misperceptions promoted by the Democrats and their sycophants in the media. This amounts to tacit concession. There has also been an eagerness among Republican officials to spend too much, appease the Left on social issues, foolishly hope to garner the blessing of the Washington media, and stray from the principles that gave America 25 years of economic growth (1983-2008). This need never have happened if the offending elected representatives had been opposed at every election cycle.
The public has now begun to wake up to the long-term effects of Barack Obama's Left-dominated government policies. Many are becoming optimistic that the mid-term election in 2010 can curtail or even overturn these effects. This can happen...but only if the right-of-center coalition can be reinstituted to benefit the Republican Party.
To our conservative and libertarian pundits, talk-show and television hosts: swear off the promotion of the Perot Doctrine even if it means lower ratings. Rush Limbaugh and others saw the danger in this approach and did not participate (while still criticizing individual Republicans in Congress and the White House). The populace needs to become educated, to become active within the party, to reject the elected officials who stray from Reagan's principles, and to nominate those who embrace them. Only a unified party can defeat the Democrats.
To the folks organizing the tea parties: these gatherings, while allowing the participants to vent, should have a purpose and an objective: the nomination of true conservative Republicans to run in every district in the country, particularly those that recently voted for faux conservatives. More importantly, the tea parties should serve to support the winner of the nomination.
To our libertarian friends (the ideological purists and leave-me-alone fundamentalists): please understand that what is happening in our country will directly affect you. It is no longer our choice to simply dismiss what is happening as a problem for others, or for future generations. You must get involved in the political process within a major party, and now.
The promotion of third party candidates, which the Democrats are trying to manipulate you to do, will only keep the current radical government in power and crystallize the massive changes they are proposing. There is no time for a third party to achieve sufficient power to influence events. Ask yourselves: would the overwhelming majority of Republicans be proposing the policies now under consideration in Washington?
To the fiscal-conservatives-but-social-liberals: you have seen how the Obama Administration plans to spend your taxes. Do you want a bankrupt economy and your wealth destroyed? Or are you willing to stop believing the absurdity that Republicans want to impose their religion on you?
To the current elected members and leaders of the Republican Party: stop believing the canard that you can compromise with the radical members of the Democratic Party in Congress and the White House, and stop believing that the mainstream media will ever be "fair." There is no room for concessions with those out to remake the country into a socialist utopia. Understand that your jobs are at stake.
The membership of the Republican Party is overwhelmingly conservative-leaning, the Democratic Party overwhelmingly socialist. As our political system can function efficiently only with two major parties, all of us must make certain that the Republican brand is the right-of-center alliance. We no longer have the luxury of arguing among ourselves to determine ideological purity and fall into the Left's web.
If we want America to remain the country of freedom and independence as founded 233 years ago, then all of us must act now to put aside differences and unite on November 2, 2010 to defeat the most radical government in the nation's history.
