First of all let me say that I am extremely happy to have enough free time to continue writing on NextGenGOP. Many of you may not even know who I am since it has been several months since my last entry. You will be hearing from me weekly and I hope you are all as excited as I am for Conservatism in America. (No, this is not sarcasm. I really am excited.)
Moving on to my topic for the week, I feel like there is a lot of focus on the Democrats right now. Which is not surprising with all eyes on President Obama; not to mention the economic climate at the moment. But I feel like this is distracting Conservatives from a lot of the serious work we have to do. Do not get me wrong, I am not one of those people who are completely focused and wanting the Democrats to fail. I would much rather see this country succeed at the hands of the Democrats than have the country grow worse so that Republicans can rise back to power. In fact I believe that we need to leave behind this attitude of hate for the Democrats.
Whoa, whoa. I know. Not everyone jump on me at once. Ask yourself a serious hypothetical question: if you started arguing with a ‘far left’ Liberal minded person, could they honestly sway your opinion on any relevant political subject? More than likely, no. The same goes for you swaying the opinion of said Liberal person. I would consider it almost a complete waste of time to attempt to change their mind. Any person who’s mind is politically active is going to be pretty much set on their key topics and views.
So where am I going with this you ask? Maybe the era of “if you’re not with, you’re against us,” should come to an end. Hating the other side is not going to solve our problems. Wishing failure on the other side is not going to solve our problems either. Even if the Democrats fail miserably and the Republicans are able to win back their losses and gain control back, it will be a false victory. The same problems that are haunting the Republicans now will come back again later. We need to move beyond pointing fingers and spouting hate. We need to take an in depth look at not only what is troubling the Republican Party, but also general Conservatism in America.
One thing is for sure: Washington is broken. Believe it or not; agree or not. Politicians are growing more and more corrupt. The best part is, is that they do not even have to hide it anymore. Many Americans ignore politics all together or have come to accept the current state of affairs on Washington. Pork barrel spending in any economic environment should be unacceptable, but yet we have politicians from both parties doing it during a time of economic crisis. Do we really not care that politicians are literally bankrupting our future just so that they can get re-elected into office? It seems to me that no matter what party you are from, very few politicians actually care about this country and care more about keeping their jobs. This is just one of a few problems that are bothering me and hopefully many other Americans out there.
I will stop here as to not rant too much during this post. This post is meant more to get you to think some and to set the tone for my upcoming blog posts. I would love to hear from any of you reading this. I would like to know how you feel about the current Republican party; not it’s policies, but it’s current politicians holding office and what they are doing. I would like to know how you feel about ‘hate’ on either side of the political aisle. Please send your commentary, questions, and anything else relevant to jclarkson.co@gmail.com. On second thought, send anything you would like to me. You can also follow me on .
I look forward to the upcoming progress Conservatism will (hopefully) be accomplishing. Stick around.
Last 5 posts by James Clarkson
- How to not be 'closed-minded' - December 31st, 2008
- Republican Loss Myth #2 - November 13th, 2008
- Republican Loss Myth #1 - November 6th, 2008
- Young Voter Turnout in Colorado - November 4th, 2008
- Going Forward Post-Election In 2008 - November 3rd, 2008
I think you miss the point that many of us have when we say we want the Democrats to fail. I don’t want them to fail in the sense of ruining this country, and I know others (such as Fred Thomson, Bobby Jindal, and most notably Rush Limbaugh) don’t mean that either.
What we mean when we say we want the Obama policies and Democrat policies to fail is that don’t want to see them implemented. For example, I am very glad that it appears that Card Check has failed. It would be bad for the country and bad for the economy. In the same way, I want the President’s budget to fail. I don’t want to see it passed. Its consequences will be disastrous for the nation, and therefore I want Obama to fail to get it even enacted. It is disingenuous to accuse anyone who wants these policies to fail as being hateful. It is precisely love of this country and what makes it great that causes us to want these anti-American far-left policies to fail.
That said, the Republican Party has its share of problems, and they are quite extensive. Under Bush, they became the free-spending entitlement party. The GOP needs to do three things:
1) Rid itself of corruption and corrupt influences.
2) Return to its Conservative philosophical roots and core principles of limited government, fidelity to the Constitution, and freedom.
3) Use these core principles to come up with new policy ideas that address the problems of 2009, but don’t compromise on basic principles.
The GOP also has to change tactically, utilizing technology and seriously engaging the grassroots. The party also needs to learn not to accept the premises set forth by the Democrats, but to reject those premises and reframe the argument in Conservative terms.
I agree with your overall response Sal, but in regards to what the GOP should do I don’t think it is plausible that they’ll go back to core principles of conservatism. One reason is because they never had them, at least not many of them. Case in point, McCain is a self declared fiscal conservative. He supposedly is the advocate of excessive pork-barrel spending, yet when the first corporate bailout bill was being debated he folded like a lawn chair and supported it. How can you support corporate bailouts and be a principled fiscal conservative? You can’t, it’s impossible. Not to mention all the credibility he lost with all the pork that was stuck in that bill. This just goes to show that most of these people do not have a single ounce of principle. They talk a good game, but when it comes time to cast a vote on legislation they think more government is the answer. The only way the GOP will be credible in the future is to throw out the unprincipled hacks, and replace them with fundametally sound conservatives.