Principles of Political War - Part 2 (Issue #460

Progressives connect emotionally with people at the level of their fears and anxiety. The metaphysical reason for this is that liberals don’t really want men and women to stand very tall on their own. They want mankind always dependent on something, most usually on the state or fellow human beings. They themselves fear a self-confident, self-reliant freeman or freewoman. They fear a venturesome spirit and would much rather return to the hole or crawl up under a rock, and have everybody else do the same. Now one may put a better face on government coercion and just say that the liberal and progressive appeal is based on helping underdogs and defending bona fide victims. This resonates well with Americans, who are basically a fair-minded people.

Regardless of the motive or psychology you ascribe to a fantastic error, conservatives are nonetheless usually busy defending the real America—its record of success now and in history. The real America is as a land of opportunity and freedom. Almost nobody is properly called oppressed or “an oppressed class.” No group has ever flocked as it were to get out of America except arguably chattel slaves and the Old South, but all sorts of people still clamor to get in.

The truth is that no one alive, nor indeed their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents either, were alive during slave times! It has been 47 years since Rev. Martin Luther King, Junior’s great “I Have a Dream” speech. We have a black president for crying out loud. The institutions are dead that gave us slavery and Jim Crow. The Constitution and laws changed long ago, and the social norms and mores of a majority that once sustained socio-economic prejudice against minorities are overwhelmingly different. One is hard-pressed anymore to find a majority. White means nothing in modern day America. The vestige of slavery is reduced to prejudice in its mildest form; and racism is no longer properly attributable to an inheritance per se, but rather to subjective individual experience in present day context.

Received memory is received media, hardly a matter of real history. At this juncture in history, misguided efforts to whip up the issues of race in order to kill the last spectral existence of racism are far more likely to intensify aural projections and lead to something else reactive, unintended and substantial. If that happens, it will be the product of modern and gross political folly on the left and not the product of historical inertia, vast right-wing conspiracy, or of majority opinions extant today.

Indeed further attempts to kill the specter can only result in the strangulation death of freedom itself. That is because free people may and should be able to agree or disagree, to associate or disassociate, and even to seek or not seek their own. They may politically congregate and rally too or choose not to, because freedom requires the existence of choice and the ability to choose in every respect. If I don’t like blue jeans, then I don’t have to wear them. Or maybe I like them, say, in one context or liked them just fine yesterday, but now I prefer something else at church or going to the opera. Quite frankly I’ve got no idea whatsoever what I’ll put on tomorrow. People aren’t blue jeans or horses, but the point is valid in terms of selection and the dynamism and free flow of opinions.

Freed of historical legacy, we are all individuals again. Therefore we really ought to be appealing to people now on the basis of individuality, their character and the ideas they hold, not on the basis of their racial groupings. The divisive and racially charged rhetoric from the national NAACP of late is unhelpful in this regard. The unsubstantiated attack by liberal politicians and community leaders, and bold innuendo from the left-leaning press against Tea Parties labeling them as racist, is also unhelpful and could backfire in November.

But politics isn’t just about reality. If it were, according to David Horowitz, “good principles and good policies would win every time.” Rather, in terms of political war, the contest is “about images and symbols and the emotions they evoke, [and] this is a battle that conservatives generally lose. In the romance of the victim as progressives stage it, Republicans and conservatives are always on the side of the bad guys—the powerful, the male, the white and the wealthy…. Defending America is readily misrepresented…. The left relishes the opportunity to smear patriots as members of the selfish party instead of as defenders of individual freedom.” Ann Coulter describes the motto of the left as “Speak loudly and carry a small victim.”

For Democrats, the romance of the victim stirs supporters and energizes their base. Conservatives are the targeted victimizers. Leftists become champions of the so-called oppressed. Sure hate to say it, but news from the front so far is that the Battle of the Bulge is going to the Nazis! Learning how to confront the left’s strategy, however, will turn the political war around. It requires that Americans become a little more clear-headed and informed, and less crybaby when leftists sing their predictable tearjerkers and blues. Fortunately, as Horowitz explains, “conservatives can use the left-wing attack against them. Contrary to the left’s view, America is not a land of victims. It is a highly mobile society, with a citizenry that aspires upwards through the system, not against it.… [The] most powerful forces obstructing opportunity for poor and minority Americans, the most powerful forces oppressing them, are progressives, the Democratic Party, and their political creation—the welfare state.”

Welfare state programs are demonstrably obstacles to the production of wealth and barriers to private opportunity. What is necessary is for conservatives to connect the dots so to speak, to connect their analysis to a political strategy that gives them a decisive edge in battle against the left’s propaganda—or if you prefer, the left’s purely innocent though misguided interpretation of events. In this way, Horowitz believes we can “neutralize the class, race and gender warfare attacks of the political left” and hopefully rise above such petty, counterproductive and polarizing politics

Principles of Political War - Part 1 (Issue #459)

The people are rising up. Americans are waking up at last to the threat: a leftist elite, bent on fundamentally changing America and making every citizen entirely dependent on the state. The Obama machine driven by a socialist agenda is spending trillions of tax-payer dollars to finance takeover of the American workplace and to stifle personal initiative and community awareness and self-determination. America is built of better stuff, however, namely the principles of private property and individual freedom, and the Resistance has begun.

In May 2009 Californians launched a tax revolt, indeed at a time when their state government’s deficit was larger than the budgets of most other states and many countries. State law according to its “Initiative” process required legislators to win a two-thirds referendum of the people before they could raise taxes. Forced to hold special election with multiple ballot Initiatives to raise taxes, California citizens shocked legislators by sending an unmistakable message by margins of 60 percent even in San Francisco: Taxed Enough Already! No more taxes!

The “TEA” Party movement quickly spread, gaining steam across the entire nation. David Horowitz calls it “the most innovative, exciting and powerful grassroots force in the history of American conservatism.” Today and through the election cycles of 2010 and 2012 it is not only vital to the health of the country, but essential to the survival of America. Consider that on the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama proclaimed, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America!” Tea Partiers threw themselves into the political breach, so to speak, saying unequivocally “No” to Obama’s plans to fundamentally alter the federal constitutional Republic and turn it into a socialist state.

The breach is one thing, but politics is really more about sustained effort and long-term commitment to ideas. A particular movement without an effective plan or strategy will not succeed. Therefore it is critical to reacquaint ourselves with some principles of political war. Many political philosophers have characterized politics as warfare by other, presumably peaceful means. Nixon described politics as being part and parcel of an overall spectrum of conflict. Most Americans are naïve politically and unfamiliar with what philosophers and political operatives know about the electoral game played every two to four years. Americans think about politics as some kind of spectator sport or movie show, a passive distraction that doesn’t require any of their personal involvement. They mistake the huge personal consequences while sitting in the bleachers or back row of a dark auditorium. They might bemoan results of an election at tax time, but then they turn again to something else entertaining or pressing.

Liberals are morally bankrupt and clueless about policy, but they still win elections because they understand American politics is driven by a dime novel Hollywood romance, with Americans sitting idly by as, you guessed it, spectators. According to Horowitz, the story they love to watch is about an underdog—you know, the little guy who goes up against the system and triumphs in the end. It is a story about opportunity and fairness too, and to win the flitting hearts and minds of American voters, you have to tap into emotions evoked by the underdog. America’s heroes are cut to a common mold: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Davy Crockett, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, Jackie Robinson, Ronald Reagan or Colin Powell, etc., etc. Always it is about the common man who rises against the odds. Yep, Mr. Smith goes to Washington and make things right! Luke Skywalker saves the planet! Horowitz isn’t as cynical perhaps about the narrative. Truth is, practically everyone in America thinks of him or herself as the underdog and aspires to be a hero. The romance in fact resonates with our deepest convictions, as well as faith in freedom and the ability to overcome adversity or to challenge and win against unjust power arrayed against you. It is the American Dream and largely her story—rising to the top through hard work in spite of humble origin.

Until the Tea Parties showed up, the political left wielded this romantic narrative as a political weapon virtually unopposed at election time. In positioning themselves as champions of the underrepresented, neglected and oppressed, leftists manufactured a version of the American story and spread it far and wide through the media and academe. According to Horowitz, the left successfully transformed America’s story from “an epic of freedom into a tale of racism, exploitation and domination. In their telling, American history is no longer a narrative of expanding opportunity, of men and women succeeding against the odds. Instead, it is a Marxist Morality Play about the powerful and their victims.” Elections have become staged political dramas too, as progressives invariably speak in the name of America’s alleged victims—women, children, minorities and the poor.

Conservatives play into the trap, approaching politics like management on every issue, as a mere practical problem that needs to be solved—emphasizing, say, utility of the tax cut, efficiency of a certain program, the optimal method to approach this or that. They talk like businessmen in other words, and while there is nothing wrong with instituting good policies and running things efficiently or turning profit, progressives label them as servants of the rich, oppressors of the weak, defenders of the strong and privileged. Conservatives become the enemies of the people, in the liberal parlance of political warfare. Witness Mario Cuomo at the Democrats’ 1996 National Convention: “We need to work as we have never done before between now and November…to take the Congress back from Newt Gingrich and the Republicans, because ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, the Republicans are the real threat. They are the real threat to our women. They are the real threat to our children. They are the real threat to clean water, clean air and the rich landscape of America.” Ooh, such good spectator sport. Only now it won’t wash.

On Political Debate and Political Action (Issue #458)

Sometimes it just isn’t worth the effort. Oh one can try to convince the other side, assuming they haven’t clam-shut their minds entirely. At best it will be a lot of work, but increasingly two sides in American politics seem to be from different cultures entirely—if not from different planets. They mostly talk past each other, not really to one another. No one strives for consensus, because consensus no longer involves statesmanlike compromise over details or method, but rather fundamental matters of conviction and principle. Glenn Beck tried to reach out (sort of) through his book, Arguing with Idiots (2009). Mark Olsen and Thomas Rexroth do perhaps the best job possible trying to convert nincompoops out there with a new fiction book called Animal Colony (2010), a modern rendition of George Orwell’s classic. Reading it, grade school students certainly and quite possibly a few indoctrinated adults, may come to understand why socialism is a terrible idea. And while outreach programs and community education initiatives are fine, all that has to wait until after the election November 2nd. If Republicans are handing out Abe Lincoln pamphlets now to the African-American community, well, they’re idiots and need more than just a couple good reads.

The political class has failed the American people—both parties. Many Christians are indeed hypocrites, or apathetic, or both these days. Those who do get theirs, so to speak, forget the struggle of their own climb, as well as whom actually enabled their ascent. Main Street supports Wall Street; and people raised the government in Washington, D.C., albeit the American people are always searching for a mechanistic device to replace the eternal vigilance required. Every election is theoretically a “term limit” after all, and some of the same people at rallies won’t even bother to vote, much less get involved in politics this campaign season—now just over three months left, with the U.S. Congress and the Texas House at stake, and indeed our country.

Although progressives refuse to believe it, many conservatives were highly critical of George W. Bush and did not save their caustic ammo just for Obama Days. The establishment GOP, however, was hijacked by the so-called neoconservative faction. So while vocal critics of President Obama were arguably more passive when Bush was in office, their voices are not now as silenced by a Republican machine or incumbent Republican administration. Unfortunately the battle for the GOP is not quite over, and neoconservatives still hold sway—which is why so much (though not all) of the Tea Party movement is fueled by disaffected conservative Republicans.

Things are not inevitable. No History is. It depends on what you do. In politics action counts for more than debate at election time (and if you hadn’t taken notice yet, election time is upon us). The rationalist deterministic mantra that defines modernity in only a certain way is a total crock. The complexity of our society does not justify violation of the Bill of Rights, or violation of States rights and federalism, or indeed the general loss of freedom we are experiencing. Moreover, ours is not the mental calculus of most Europeans—i.e., what do I get for my tax money? In some instances, Europeans see trade-offs in terms of money for services and they conclude it isn’t that bad. It might not be so far removed from crony capitalism either. Of course, Americans aren’t supposed to trade their taxes and hence their freedom, for a bunch of cradle-to-grave social services, at least not according to Original Intent or the enumerated powers in the Constitution. Americans are not supposed to be “socialist” in other words; albeit, they have been trending that way ever since the Progressive Era and New Deal.

The modern and somewhat resurgent progressive impulse has placed Obama in power, but only after a perceived failed, neoconservative administration. We do need problem solvers and competent people in government to tackle the hard problems. Only they ought to be restricted to constitutional activities! One of the reasons the government is so inept at crisis management, is that it is doing everything else but. The world is not a rosy picture, never was and probably never will be. Someone’s particular problem or special need does not place a government coerced responsibility or legal obligation on a freeman or freewoman to go fix and solve it. One shouldn't have to pay for someone else’s stupidity, mistakes or bad luck either. We can talk moral suasion, and I’m all for family, church and charitable assistance. I also believe in the power of free enterprise and of mutually beneficial exchanges to make things better over time for most people. My acknowledgment of the real world we live in, in other words, does not lead me to the conclusion that freedom is ever a wrongheaded idea or that it should take a back seat to many things.

In a recent speech, the Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, Tom Pauken addressed a 2010 high school graduating class: “Our nation is desperately in need of good leaders. America faces a more serious set of challenges than any time in my life, including our most serious national recession since the Great Depression…. This is a time of high levels of unemployment and the hollowing out of our U.S. manufacturing base. (Even here in Texas, where we have lower unemployment than any other large labor market state in the nation, we too have been hard hit by this nasty national recession). Your generation will be the most adversely affected if we don’t put in place policies to get our economy moving again. It is not inevitable that unemployment remains persistently high, or that our U.S. manufacturing base continues to deteriorate. Americans – and Texans, in particular – have always risen to the occasion whenever our nation faced serious challenges before; and we can do so again if we have the political will and civic courage to make bold decisions for the long term good of the country.”

Now here’s what I think too: that ours could be—I said could be, the next ‘greatest generation.’ But don’t underestimate the degree of effort required. The good Lord rarely sets up His victory along a primrose path. Freedom has never been free—no, not for Israelites and certainly not for us Americans. The road ahead the next few years is arduous, even risky, but we have every talent we’ll need to win, survive and prosper and to pull this country through, on Election Day and beyond.

Calling Young Patriots (Issue #457)

When I speak to young people about leadership, I like to draw from my own experiences three points with credibility. First, leadership roles and experiences early on, i.e., in your youth—stick with you and make it easier to pick up similar and even greater roles throughout your entire life. Second, although certainly not identical, some leadership skills are transferable from political to military to business and back to political pursuit. My experience today as Chairperson of the Central Texas Tea Party is reminiscent of my Teen-Age Republican (TAR) and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) participation during the Reagan Revolution thirty years ago. Lastly, and borrowing a lesson from history, the big political waves don’t come around all that often—when they do, individuals who catch the wave are better off by far and smarter, for having taken part in something historical.

The fact is that everything builds on everything else and there is no “freebie” in life. The process involves an accumulation of study, work, experience and achievements that move or convey you, over time to higher positions and quite possibly, by the grace of God, to your dreams! Everything counts: reading, playing and behaving; studying in high school to make good grades; making good grades in high school in order to get into college; doing well in college or quite possibly at your first job, in order to get to that employment level that starts a ladder of upward mobility; and then taking one position at a time to get to the other; and finally, from one career to another—so that eventually, retirement really does resemble those mythological “Golden Years.” Everything you do becomes a vantage point to the next step, and to all else that follows.

Of course what I’m implying is that time and effort spent in youth leadership activities (say, organizing a Young Patriots group) begets other, higher positions of leadership and the skills needed for such positions. As I have stated and written before, there is definitely something going on in the country, including Texas in a reaction to President Obama’s relentless progressive agenda. More than at any time since the late 1970s, people have awoken to a sense of danger and a strong desire to do something political. Now I’m going to refrain from saying more about our president or the military’s Commander-In-Chief, other than to point out that he is indeed a civilian president elected every four years. He has command of the people’s military, but Americans have no Commander-In-Chief. The military is subordinate to civilian political leadership and civilians also do not salute their president. Sometimes political leaders forget that Americans are not supposed to take orders from Washington. Rather, Americans are supposed to be left as a free people, at liberty to do things for themselves and families in the ways they personally see fit, with money they have earned.

Historically states created the federal government, not the other way around; and the people of the several states delegated to the federal government enumerated powers but kept everything else to themselves. This past Saturday (26 June) there was a Tenth Amendment Town Hall Meeting held in Temple at which six conservative Texas State legislators, including Ralph Sheffield were present and fielded questions. It was indicative of what you already know if you follow the news carefully, and that is that many states’ Attorneys General have filed suit against the Obama health reform bill on the basis of the Tenth Amendment.

You need to read the Constitution. If words mean anything, then it is impossible to figure where the federal government discerns a power to make private individuals buy something, much less private health insurance; and then tries to enforce legislation using a taxing agency like the IRS. Every citizen of these United States needs to read and study the Constitution and refuse to let the Constitution be trampled by anyone or by any single branch of the federal government. Before it’s all over with, the politics of the tea parties and of conservative groups around the country may even involve civil disobedience—because the principles involved today are as fundamental as what Jim Crow and segregation involved in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. Remember there are different kinds of enslavement and vestiges of the same, as well as tyranny in many guises. The government is not necessarily a benevolent master, and even if it were the American people will not suffer a yoke from any man or institution save Jesus Christ himself.