Is Compromise the Way to Victory in 2012?

Is Compromise the Way To Victory in 2012?

As I have been listening to and reading ideas and opinions about the 2012 Republican Presidential primary vote I have found some disturbing thoughts on how to go about removing the biggest danger to liberty who has ever sat in the White House.  I have different thoughts than many others.  My concerns here are with the Republican Party machine as a whole and that the need to make changes in the leadership and the party philosophy is being lost in the clamor to beat Obama.  I hear people talk and read what people write about who can or can’t beat Obama, who will get the nomination, who will be the Vice-President, and so on.  I hear Republican pundits talk about being moderate and inclusive, not rigid and ideological.  I hear them say we need to compromise our values to draw the “gay” vote, the “Hispanic” vote, the “black” vote, the “moderate” vote but not much talk about winning the conservative vote.  Am I to assume that conservatives are ignored because we will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is because he is Republican, like blacks will vote for Obama because he is black?  I believe Obama can be beaten by a flat tire on a 100 degree day.  Our economy is in shambles, our foreign policy favors Muslim despots and other enemies over those who stand behind us, and our Constitution and laws are ignored by those who have sworn to uphold them. Given these facts, why do I feel as though we are being stampeded into choosing a “moderate” as the Republican candidate for President in 2012?

Ronald Reagan campaigned on the premise that we needed bold colors not pale pastels and won a resounding election in landslide proportions.  He won because people were fed up with Jimmy Carter and the disaster he gave us as President.  Reagan didn’t co-opt his values to garner every “minority” group he could find.  He campaigned on Christian conservative values and the promise to stand for those values.  He trounced a Democrat who promised the moon to every special interest group he could promise something to.  The problem was that these interest groups had found out that Carter’s promises meant nothing when the economy was in the tank and they couldn’t find jobs.  Gas could not be bought without waiting in line for hours and often having to resort to fist fights to get to the pump. Food prices were skyrocketing and food was often in short supply.  Unemployment was through the roof, and interest rates were also flying up.  How many of you remember the “Misery Index” of the Carter administration?  Obama does have the advantage that the FED is artificially holding interest rates down to try to help him get re-elected but once the election is over, regardless of the winner, interest rates are going to rise rapidly and we will see inflation once again rear its ugly head.  It is coming and the only reason it hasn’t hit yet is that those with a vested interest in Obama and liberalism are holding back in hopes of taking over again.

As I hear this talk of compromise from Republican pundits and members of the conservative social networks I belong to one thing comes to mind that I don’t hear anyone talking about.  If we truly want to get this nation back to the Constitution and the values it was founded upon, why are we not seeking the God vote?  I hear of the need to compromise on everything that conservatism stands for so we can draw a wider audience.  If we compromise our conservatism to draw other voters do we not compromise the very substance of our conservatism?  Is conservatism dead because we are no longer willing to stand on those values?  What would God have us do?  Would God have us compromise and accept ideas and values that go against his Word?  Is the 2012 election too important to include God in the ingredients?

Republicans won local, state, and federal elections in 2010 because they ran on the premise of bold colors not pale pastels.  The party leadership in Congress have since shown us that those were only campaign promises and not true value statements, but the fact is that conservatism won in an unprecedented landslide.  Obama didn’t win out over conservative ideas in 2008.  He won because John McCain, and the Republican Party as a whole, offered “moderation and inclusiveness” not true conservatism.  McCain was the darling of the media when he was poking conservatives in the eye with his “moderate maverick” stance but as soon as he became the Republican nominee they turned on him like pit bulls.  The “moderate, all-inclusive” candidate got stomped by an empty suit with a nice sounding campaign slogan that people bought into. 

Never in the history of our nation has a political party won such a resounding victory as that in 2010, an election won by espousing very conservative values to a populace seeking those  conservative policies.  Have we forgotten so soon what it takes to win elections?  Even though the promises made in 2010 were cheap campaign slogans, as was the “hope and change” slogan of 2008, those promises got Republicans elected at all levels in record numbers.  It is a shame that they have proven that they cannot be trusted to follow through but the point is that the bold colors of conservatism is a winning proposition. 

Sixty-seven percent of We the People identify with the TEA Party yet we constantly hear about how we need to compromise those TEA values to include others.  Include what others?  The 33% who favor Communism or Islam over liberty and prosperity?  We can’t all be right wing ideological Christians, not at 67% of We the People.  I promote the premise that our freedom, our prosperity, and our future are more important to most people than identity politics.  Why not stand up for conservative values, for Godly values, and hold tight to those values?  I think we will find that many people in these so-called interest groups have a vested interest in the prosperity of America.  TEA Party events are attended by people in all of these “interest groups”.  Many black voters, some of which attend TEA Party events, realize that if the nation goes down they go down also.  The same goes for the “gay” voter.  What good will it do them to have the special privileges promised to them by Democrats if our nation goes the way of failure and turns into a Third World banana republic, or even worse, an Islamic state?  In America “gays” are not hung or beheaded as they would be in Islamic countries.  I don’t assume these people are too stupid to see the difference.  As a matter of fact, I have a great deal of confidence in the intelligence of the America people and their ability to discern what is best in the long run.  I wonder why so many seem to be working so hard to steer us away from the more conservative candidates, and why so many seem to be buying into the “so and so can’t win” premise.  I believe that in the long run the most conservative candidate has the best chance of winning in 2012.

The dilemma is this, do we follow our belief in the provisions of the Constitution, the sound decision making of the founding fathers, and the guidance of Almighty God in the founding of the nation and the writing of the Constitution, or do we compromise those beliefs, and nominate a Republican candidate who will be “not as bad as Barak Obama”?  Once again I believe the best course for this nation is to nominate the most conservative candidate possible, bold colors not pale pastels.

Compromise is a legal position that surrenders one’s principles for a piece of the pie when the whole pie is the right and just conclusion.  I have seen compromise at work in Washington and I am not very satisfied with the results of those compromises.  I have seen the nation’s debt steadily rise through compromise.  One party gives in on raising the borrowing limit for promises to cut spending later.  Ronald Reagan did it and found out that “compromise” was a one way street, that the promised spending cuts never materialized as promised.  George H. W. Bush compromised on his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge, and when the promised spending cuts never materialized, he found himself a one term President.   George W. Bush compromised and saw spending go through the roof without the promised budget cuts to off-set the spending increases, now there is an oxymoron for you.  John Boehner led the take-over in the House of Representatives in 2010 with the pledge “we have learned our lessons, give us control of the House and you will see a change in the way business is done. We will cut $100 billion in the first year in office”.  Well, the $100 billion was compromised into $352 million that turned out to be mostly “Washington D. C. accounting gimmicks” that amounted to nothing when the dust finally settled.  The point here is that conservatism works, conservatism appeals to a majority of American citizens, and conservative values are what has made this nation the greatest nation in the history of the world.  When we stray from conservative values we find our nation and We the People suffering from one lack after another.

How are we ever going to return this nation to God, and to a strict observance of our Constitution, if we are not willing to take a stand somewhere and say no to compromising our values?  How are we ever going to show our children that right is right and wrong is wrong if we show them we cannot stand up to those who use scare tactics or intimidation to herd us into a pen of tyranny in the hopes that one person will be less dangerous than another?

 To me, a “moderate” is one who is either afraid to take a firm stand for fear of offending someone, or has no true values they are willing to stand on.  When I see a liberal I know where they stand.  When I see a conservative I know where they stand. When I see a moderate I see someone who will tell you what they think you want to hear to get their way and then do as they wish regardless of what they promised.  How are we ever going to get the Republican Party to listen to We the People and realize that we are the boss and they are the employee, not the rulers, if we are not willing to hold them to our conservative values?

What is going to happen when the time comes to truly take a stand for God and for Jesus Christ, or our freedom, if we cannot take a stand now when the stakes aren’t as high as they will be then?  One doesn’t suddenly attain courage.  It is a process of standing on principle in ever increasing degrees of danger or temptation until we have the necessary courage to withstand the ultimate test.  It is like building muscle.  One doesn’t become muscular overnight, in spite of the TV commercials to the contrary.  Body builders work every day; lifting weights, doing sit-ups, squats, and all the other necessary work to build their muscles into what you see when they finally get to the competitions.  How does someone win a marathon?  Do they just get up one morning, drink a 5 ounce energy drink, and decide to go run 26 miles faster than anyone else in the race?  I know how much effort goes into accomplishing such a task.  When you were in high school or college did you ever decide “well, I don’t want to study for this test, I will do my best and study for the next one, I still have time to get my grades”?  Was that the answer to success, compromising on what you knew was the best thing to do because doing the right thing was inconvenient or difficult at the time?

When I enlisted in the United States Army I was not a “lean, mean, fighting machine”.  It took 13 months to change me from a college student, a mere boy, into a member of one of the most elite units the world has ever known.  It was hours of training, physical, mental, and emotional trials, sometimes for days at a time without rest, that turned me from a green recruit into an elite soldier, one they could depend on to accomplish the tasks I would be required to accomplish, to know that they could depend on me when the chips were down.  I didn’t get there by the cadre compromising their standards to suit me.  I got there by accepting the standards and working hard to meet those standards.  Many times in my life I have seen that compromise does not accomplish what is necessary to come out on top and that sticking to my values and standards has its own reward, the reward of success and the knowledge that I did it the right way. 

Now is the time for We the People to stand up and say NO MORE!!  It is time for us to take a stand, draw the line in the sand as Colonel William Travis did at the Alamo and say “this is where I stand and fight, I will not back up any further, who is with me?”.  If we compromise again and nominate a moderate, where do we finally take that stand?  Do we compromise this time because the stakes are so high and wait until compromise is easier?  When will it be easier to draw that line in the sand and say we will not back up any longer?  Do we embrace conservatism or do we accept a watered down middle-of-the-road attitude closer to liberalism as McCain did in 2008?

The future of our Republic depends on us, WE the People, to stand up and make our voices heard loud and clear.  The only way we can do that is to stand up and not compromise our conservative values.  I know it isn’t easy, doing the right thing is never as easy as going with the flow.  Even a dead fish can float downstream.  It takes courage and effort to swim against the current but the only way to return our nation to what God and our founding fathers designed is to swim upstream and to show those who would enslave us that we will not go quietly into the night.

I don’t see our nation getting stronger or freer by compromising conservative values with anyone, Democrats or Republicans.  The political class, the ruling class, as Rush Limbaugh calls them, view We the People with disdain and disregard because they know they can play us for their own personal gain, politically and monetarily. 

Many will criticize me for my views, as they have in the past, but I am willing to be criticized, called names, accused of being rigid and racist.  I don’t see it as being rigid and racist.  I see myself as standing for what is right and what is just.  Many are called but few answer due to the pressure that comes with a willingness to stand for freedom, to stand for conservative principles, to stand up and say I have had enough of this and I will no longer accept mediocrity.  Thomas Jefferson said, “Those who will sacrifice freedom for safety will soon not have, nor deserve, either”.  As for me, I stand for conservative values and freedom now, not when it may be more convenient later.   If more people would take the same stand we could see major changes as the Republican Party would soon see that they must change their ways or lose out totally. I also heard on the radio this week that 75% of We the People agree with me in principle, but how many of them will stand with me on that principle? 

I urge you to pray earnestly about what to do in the upcoming primary season.  If you ask, God will give you a clear picture of what our nation needs, a clear picture of who will be the best person to restore the United States to its once lofty perch in the world.  I believe in a strict interpretation of the Constitution. I believe it was the product of prayer and a belief in freedom.  I believe with that true conservative values are the answers to what ails our nation.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell                              Claremore, Oklahoma                                    September 10, 2011