I’ve watched the results come in from the recent Primaries and Caucuses, and more and more I’m aware of just how unusual this presidential campaign is, on both sides. “Conventional wisdom” has been disproved again and again recently. What we need now is Unconventional Wisdom, a new clarity about what is going on around us and what to do about it.
Together, we of the Right have to carefully go through the process of determining just exactly what it is that Conservatives, and that Republicans, believe, and show clearly how it differs from that of our opponents on the Left. We have to produce arguments and questions, answers and solutions, and put them out to be judged and polished by the abrasions of free speech. We need to show that they are superior to the explanations that have come out so far, and, most importantly, we need to know why they are the best ones. This is among the great missions of the Internet, and its time has come.
Part of this task is to actively work toward filling the Senate and the House with Conservative majorities. Part of it is to actively support Conservative ideas and oppose those of the Left. Read Michelle Malkin’s “Quo Vadis, Conservatives”, at the National Review site, rev up your engines, and go to it! Let’s horrify the Democrats when they wake up on November 5th.
We need to show that we will act in large numbers to fight for the issues we believe in—just as we fought during the discussions of the problems of illegal immigration. Let’s assume that leaders of honor might demonstrate their superior understanding and love for America by following what are found to be the demonstrably best solutions to America’s problems as advocated by an active, dynamic Conservative movement in the country and in the chambers of the Senate and the House.
We won’t be in lock-step. Just as we were individuals with many points of view during the Illegal Immigration debate, we will have various approaches to problems; but we will address all issues in dynamic ways, in a serious discussion in the Marketplace of Ideas, building practical solutions that can bring about a significant, measurable change for the better.
Now, Barack Obama speaks about ending the divide between people on the opposite sides of the political fence. Moderates and independents often agree that this is essential, that there needs to be middle-ground solutions. The problem is that when it comes to the Left and Right, the solutions that will be offered are often of the sort: “Do we build an ice hockey stadium or an Olympic swimming-and-diving center?” With this kind of choice, there is no middle-ground possible. You have to make a decision, and once you start setting-up the structure and installing the equipment, those actions move you increasingly away from the choice not taken.
What is needed in all too many cases is far from an impossible bipartisanship. The Left and the Right usually offer quite differing solutions to the same problem. We need to highlight the differences and their consequences. For instance, the Right defends the Boy Scouts, who have strict rules about an open belief in God. The Left demands that the Boy Scouts tolerate an open disbelief in God. What is possible as a middle-ground? Nothing.
These are the kinds of issues that are raised, for instance, with the appointments of Justices to the Supreme Court. Once a judicial approach toward law enters by being held by a new member, that approach will be there for as much as thirty or more years. The structure that we build with confirmed nominees matters. There are immediate direct and future consequences. And not the least for the Boy Scouts.
Most of our solutions will set up institutions, regulations, protocols and policies. The bureaucracies formed will set up personnel and infrastructural and superstructural imperatives, and they bring with them differing futures. Actions have consequences, and official actions carry especially long-lived consequences.
The most important single thing we need is clarity. And that means detailed explorations of issues and real-life, successful examples. While the campaigns are ongoing, we need to do the serious work to flesh-out our beliefs. We need to know what we believe in and why, and how to demonstrate our beliefs. We need to seek out candidates at all levels and issues in all arenas that will further our Conservative beliefs.
We need to know who we are, what we are, and what we want.
And we need to get up and get out and get it.
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