The New Clarion

In the wake of Eric Cantor’s defeat at the hands of a grass roots unknown both the GOP establishment and the Tea Party groups are wondering what next? The GOP is wondering how to prevent future defeats and the Tea Party groups are wondering how to engineer more of them. But as conservative pundit Byron York recently wrote:

“The midterm elections are less than six months away, and Republicans still can’t agree among themselves on what it will take to win.”

It does seem to me that Cantor’s defeat was mostly because his constituents were more fed up with him than they were enamored with Mr. Brat. And while it’s also true that the Obama administration has given the GOP and voters an abundance to things to be against, it remains true that to win elections you must show voters what you are for. That is where the GOP seems confused. So confused they are resorting to polls to find out what they should be for as Mr York testifies:

“A recent GOP survey found that a plurality of voters agree with the statement,”The system has been changed too structurally that it is not possible to go back to the way it was before.””

There are two proper responses to a poll like this: 1. If our founders thought that way we wouldn’t be here and it’s not going back but going forward to discover real freedom, and 2, Truth is not determined by head counts but rather by reference to principles. This last is where I’m convinced the GOP is missing the boat.

If the GOP would stop searching for concrete particulars to be for and start thinking in terms of principles, those principles would tell them what particular policies to be for. For example, the GOP should not just be against gun control but for man’s right to life. (If you don’t have right to defend your life, you don’t have a right to life)

If the GOP would think in terms of principles they could see how the Democratic Party is destroying itself along with America. Look at their policies: Multiculturalism, egalitarianism, diversity, affirmative action, and the latest progressive fad, ‘race consciousness.’ The purpose of all of these is to condition individuals to focus on everyone’s differences. You are different from that person. This group is different from that group and so on ad nauseam.

This tunnel vision focus on differences dominates our universities, the mainstream media and our politics. It teaches and encourages people to look at each other through the lens of differences, to take notice of all those things that they don’t have in common. It separates people from each other by walls of differences. Depending on the types of differences, all this does is foster discomfort, envy, contempt and even hostility between groups. If there were no racism or prejudice or animosity between diverse people in a given society, a laser like focus on everyone’s differences would create it.

So why are progressives doing it? It allows them to portray all these differences whether racial, ethnic, skin color, gender, economic status even religious persuasion as instances of inequality which is then held to be a form of unfairness or injustice for which the government must step in and correct with the brute force of law. It gives progressives an endless supply of differences to protest as injustices.

The Democratic Party likes to call itself the Party of inclusion. But it really isn’t. It says to people “We want you Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Jews etc to join our party because you are Black, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish. We will have separate programs to benefit each of you.” What they are really saying is “With us you will always be separate but equal.”

The Republican Party needs to stop reaching out to ethnic groups because they are ethnic groups. The GOP needs to become the party of real inclusion. They need to say . “We want to be the party of similarities. We want to focus on the values we share, the things we have in common, for it is only on these that we can cooperate and work together to build a better America, a happier America. And while we see and recognize differences, we consider them to be non-essentials. Our similarities are what’s essential. We want you to join our party because you’re you, whatever that is.”

So how would the GOP go about doing this? Principles. The founders gave us the principles in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, that every man has an unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The GOP embraced those principles once long ago.It needs to rediscover them now. Yes, it will take some time but now is the time to start. The GOP needs to take the moral high ground from the Democrats who have no right to it.