PrintOctober 21, 2009
Divide and conquer
The 2010 will be the most important midterm election in the history of our nation. The coalition necessary to vote out of office those members of Congress who are supporting 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 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 lexicon and the foundation of the strategy to split what is a right of center country into many factions which 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 been the degree to which the central government is involved in the day to day activity of the citizens. That gulf has never been wider than it is today.
The current Democratic Party is overwhelmingly made up of interest groups that believe a powerful central government is essential to guarantee what they have determined to be 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 done over the past twenty five years confirms that the majority of Americans believe in limited government and are loath to grant too much power to Washington. Yet in 2008 the country elected a President and Congress that is the most radical in our history and 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 with sufficient numbers of voters to give him 19% of the popular vote, the highest level ever achieved by a third party candidate, assured the election of Bill Clinton and established the basic game plan on how to split the coalition that had handed the Republicans the presidency in three previous elections by landslide proportions. There has been no such margin of victory for either party since.
Over the past 17 years the Perot Doctrine has been repeated ad nauseam by many conservative and libertarian talk show hosts, become a consistent theme for a myriad of columns and articles and confirmed by some so-called conservative intellectuals claiming the Era of Reagan is dead and we must all become socialist light. Using this backdrop the left has seized on 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 issue voters. The Democrats quickly learned that mere words well delivered would successfully affect these voters. For example, in the most recent election, Barack Obama, an unabashed promoter of unfettered abortion rights and gun control proclaimed himself to be a Christian seeking to make abortion rare and against all gun control legislation. Because of his ability to deliver a speech and sound convincing, Mr. Obama won the Catholic vote and a much higher percentage of the evangelical and 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 liberals. Recall during the campaign Senator Obama's move to the center by pledging not to raise taxes on 95% of the people, and to control spending. There was nothing in his background to substantiate these promises and these lies were deliberate. As there is no difference between the parties, these voters went with the candidate for the House, Senate or the White House that 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 factions are constantly on alert to any real or perceived drifting from their established set of beliefs, be it behavior or policy. If a Republican member of Congress or the President strayed from any 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, spendthrift, not responsive to the people and with President Bush, an illiterate, bumbling, incompetent fool thus besmirching the Republican brand. Again, 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 realized an effective way to intimidate the elected Republicans or the party leaders was to find individual examples of corruption, misspoken words, perceived insensitivity and false charges of racism. These accusation, with the help of a sympathetic media, were projected over the entire party in essence claiming all Republicans were (fill in the blank). Unfortunately many within the conservative press unwittingly promoted the same world view instead of actively refuting it.
Among the Republican Party leadership, there has been a lack of spine to stand up to this game plan and counter the misperceptions promoted by the Democrats and their sycophants in the media, thus tacitly admitting whatever accusations were made had an element of truth. There has also been an eagerness 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 the country 25 years of economic growth (1983-2008). This need never happened if these elected representatives had been opposed at every election cycle.
The public has now begun to wake up to long term effect of the policies by this left-dominated government headed by Barack Obama. Many are becoming more optimistic that the mid-term election in 2010 can result in these actions being curtailed or potentially overturned. 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. What is needed is the education of the populace to become active within the party, reject the elected members who stray from Reagan principles and nominate those who embrace them, as 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. That objective should be the nomination of true Republican conservatives to run or challenge in every district in the country; particularly those that recently voted for faux conservatives. More importantly support the winner of the nomination.
To our libertarian friends: the ideological purists and leave-me-alone fundamentalists, please understand what is happening in our country will directly affect you. It is no longer our choice to simply dismiss what is happening will only impact others or future generations. You must now get involved in the political process within a major party.
The promotion of third party candidates, which the Democrats are trying to manipulate you to do, will only keep the radical government in Washington in power and make permanent the massive changes they are proposing. There is not the 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 what the Obama Administration plans to do with your taxes and government spending. Which would you rather have -- a bankrupt economy and your wealth destroyed or to stop believing in the absurdity that Republicans want to impose their religion on you?
To the current elected members and leaders of the Republican Party stop believing in the canard that you can compromise with the radical members of the Democratic Party in Congress and the White House or that the mainstream media will ever be "fair". There is no room for concessions with those out to re-make the country into a socialist utopia. Understand that your jobs are and will be at stake.
The membership of the Republican Party is overwhelmingly conservative-leaning, the Democratic Party socialist. As our political system can only function efficiently with two major parties, all of us must make certain 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 web constructed by the Left.
If we want this 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.
