No, I’m not talking about the Obamabots and the progressives. I may be able to get along with them in a social setting, but not when I’m blogging about the future of our republic, and the future of my children I don’t see much common ground. I’m talking about the religious conservatives and the fiscal conservatives. Andrew Ian Dodge has an interesting piece up at the Examiner, and I really don’t have an answer. He asks “What next” after the Glenn Beck rally last weekend. It’s a good question that’s worth consideration.
What does it mean for the tea party movement both in Maine and in the rest of the country? For one thing the religious right have laid a challenge down for the fiscal conservative right to muster similar or preferably better numbers on 9/12. They have reminded all those not so religious on the right or of a different tradition that they are a force to be reckoned with. They showed up in great numbers to be led by their hero in a spectacle of Christian fundamentalist faith. This is yet another, and by far the most impressive, attempt to shove religion down the throat of the tea party movement.
In order to retain those in the middle, non-commital and of other parties that have become part of the tea party movement its essential to produce a spectacular event, or rather events, on 9/12 in DC, St Louis & Sacramento. The tea party movement needs to show that fiscal conservatism is an even stronger force in the American politics than social conservatism.
It’s a battle over who speaks for the grassroots of the county, and its one the fiscal conservatives need to win lest they lose all those moderates, Democrats and independents who have been attracted to the non-partisan, non-religious and non-denominational nature of the tea party movement.
Beck and his attendees are right about one thing though. The future of the country depends on getting this right before November.
I’m a Catholic who is not so happy with my church, but I’m willing to put aside my misgivings. But that’s not what this post is about. Although I’ve commented in the past on things religious, that’s not the point of this blog. I come down on the side of the fiscally conservative – on the side of the Constitution. Smitty, who acknowledges that he is a social conservative, made a great point.
Social conservatives, and I am one, need to grasp that worrying about private behavior at the Federal level (e.g. variations of marriage) sets the precedent for much evil, like abortions and the Department of Education, but I semi-repeat myself.
Of course, the root of this foulness is the 16th Amendment and Federal Reserve in 1913, subsequent to which the District of Columbia has become the Distributor of Cash. Granted, that gravy train is going to make restoration harder, but it has to be done.
The Founders wrote a Constitution to delegate certain powers to a central government for specific reasons. The time has come to work the wisdom of that Constitution in reverse, to return the Federal government to its intended bounds. Social conservatives really need to ponder this point.
Like Dodge said above, we only have one chance to get this right. What are our objectives? What are we trying to do in the next sixty days? I don’t disagree that honor, and even civility, is something in short supply these days. But we have some pressing concerns.
I pray for the survival of our republic every day of my life. And then I blog, in the hopes that something I post will reach enough people to make a difference. Maybe I’m naive, but I hope that we can all agree that an all-powerful federal government is a danger to the rights of all of us – fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, moderates, and democrats who don’t wish to live under an oligarchy.
Look, I don’t call myself “The Lonely Conservative” because I hang out with conservatives all the time. I have a lot of friends who already think republicans and conservatives are what they call “a bunch of bible thumpers” who are trying to shove religion down their throats. I’m not saying I agree with them, but it sure would be nice to be able to convince them otherwise.
LC…
2 Chronicles 7:14
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LC, we, the Tea Party, had better get our focus on the issues at hand and forget about the social issues. We have an open window to climb through to the controls of our government and we had better not get distracted by the throbbing red lights of rightousness. We are on a burning ship and we need the help from everyone to put out the fire below . Now is not the time to ask for ID’s or faiths but to ask if keeping the ship afloat is in all of our best intrests. I pray that the “Fringe” candidates that have been elected by the TP have enough wisdom to understand that the MSM will ask every question in the dirty tricks book to get these rookies to stumble. Jobs, Obamacare and the economy. That’s all there is. No gay marriage, no DADT, no abortion, no SS or Medicare comments. STFU and talk about jobs, Obamacare and the economy.
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We need to vote out the Lefties and RINOs.
I’m not seeing too many “Moderate” Dems
I see far too many RINOs
We need to get to a place were all the PC BS is shut down.
The entitlement mentality has to stop
The victim mentality has to stop
Shutting down the majority for the few has to stop.
Lefties say this means we want slavery and all kinds of stupid stuff from the past. That’s just BS spewed to keep THEM in power.
Common Sense fiscal policy
Common Sense Domestic SECURITY policy
Common Sense Foreign policy.
Tolerance and diversity at the expense of national security is BUNK.
The Dems had the interment camps in WWII and blocked civil rights legislation so they can just STFU.
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I’m disagreeing a bit with Andrew’s take on the rally and Beck’s message. Singling out Christian fundamentalist faith messaging for the rally is not accurate. The people of religions other than Christianity would not have been there if they would have thought it was totally about Christianity. If they were duped, I’m not aware of any complaints from them. Whether Andrew or any of us like it or not, our founders were believers in a God that was revered through their Christian faith. There were speakers and representatives from all faiths on stage. It was a universal message of the commonality of goodness in faith and humanity found in all religions.
If Andrew has to ask “what’s next”? IMHO, he missed the big picture. To me, what’s next is taking all that people had gathered in support of, talked about and listened to and then going about your life and practicing it, raising your kids, recognizing the Golden Rule. And from all that, we rebuild a citizenry and culture of people with honor and civility to replace the corruption, bigotry and inhumanity that has metastasized to our street corners and the highest levels of power in business, government and the clergy. But it’s not an overnight thing.
This all used to be generationally instinctive and taken for granted, but progressives have worked for over a hundred years breaking down our core principles of what made us America, so don’t think that one rally, or one decade, or one election cycle will return us. Most of us are now so insistent on instantaneous gratification, unable to recognize that this is an ongoing endeavor that used to be called Americanism.
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but to me it stood for empathy and goodness; two way trust and faith in your fellow man dovetailed into individual liberties to keep our country free. And aside from the few charlatans and rouges, our citizenry strove for that. Nowadays, not so much. It used to be the crucible in which any individual assimilated, but today, we’ve been purposefully broken into factions. Beck’s rally was not going to immediately stop or reverse anything. It was meant as a time to recognize and turn the corner from the present path and proceed back to and stay on the course we were founded on. I for one will take part, will you?
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Two of the most depressing things I’ve heard in the last 10 years are that “Catholics” voted 54% for Obama and that 50% still support him. This is the state of the current Catholic Church. It’s members support the first president to support post-birth abortion and anti-religious Marxism. It is horrible. Thank you, Vatican ll.
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There is very little problem with the GOP holding open the doors of the imaginary big tent.
Right now its the fiscal conservatives and Libertarians who are up in arms over the run away government spending.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with them are the Social conservatives or the Religious arm of the BIG TENT who have their own issues.
But the bottom line is the Right has never made the case against the left that the left is in the business of PERPETUATING POVERTY to maintain their power base.
The more people they keep poor, broke and dependent upon the government the more power the wield.
Unless and until the Right is willing to deal with ending poverty in this country then the left will always maintain its majority power grip because with each passing regulation, more and more people slip into the throes of poverty and the government dole.
Unless………
and Until……
The Right tackles poverty we will always be the junior party.
always.
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Doomed: because the Republicans did not tackle poverty, FDR kept getting voted in. But The Great Depression was not caused by Regulations. Frankly I am not sure WHAT caused it – but I will tell you that my parents appreciated that FDR was “doing something” , although Hoover was also ‘doing something’. And if neither of them could “solve poverty” then where are we going ? It is also obvious that people slip into poverty because millions of people just move here and hang out, while the Govt subsidizes outsourcing jobs by the millions. When you have too many people chasing too little work that anyone is willing to pay for, then you always get those who will take advantage of it to create Serfdom. That is why the Bubonic plague ended up leading to the destruction of serfdom. Those in charge could not say – hey, i can find 1000 people to do that, and you can be replaced by someone willing to work for nothing. Of course, they did not have the Internet, and now practically anyone can be replaced.
I agree with michigan – it is really a matter of public priorities we can agree on – which might not be our personal top priority, or agree with our analysis of what is most important or at the root cause, but the Opposition is playing Divide and Rule, and we will all lose. It is typical that things have to get so bad that we have no choice, otherwise we will persist in riding our personal hobby horse. In 1776 they had it easy – the Redcoats occupied Boston. That is what it takes to get people to get their priorities straight – for a third of the population !
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