The Problem With Republicans

By Douglas V. Gibbs

I am not a Republican, but I am registered as a Republican.  I don't love all things Republican, and I don't hate all things Republican, but of the two parties, the GOP, in my opinion, is the party we have the best chance of turning around.

Conservatism wins when applied, and when articulated properly.  Ronald Reagan's two landslide elections showed us that.  The mid-term election of 2010 revealed that truth, as well, as conservatives loaded the voting booths after getting involved in TEA Party rallies and meetings, and realizing that they needed to be involved. Candidates, more conservative than the Republican Party normally offers, were on the ballot, and the voters sighed with relief.  Finally, someone to vote for that was not necessarily just the lesser of two evils.

It was simple, really.  President Obama represented something foreign to America, and Obamacare frightened these people into getting involved.  The grassroots movement grew, the TEA Party won by a landslide, and then the GOP establishment got its hands on it.

The message became diluted, and the focus swerved into a tree.

We are not just in a political war, but in a culture war, and we have failed to combat the attacks.  Meanwhile, the republicans, or at least the non-conservative ones, are convinced that the social issues, and being too challenging against the democrats, will sink the political party.

They cannot be more wrong.

The social issues, and a strong conservative stance on other issues, is not the problem.  It is failure to articulate the argument.

The problem is not our stance, but how we argue our stance.  The liberal left has changed the language, and the premise, of the issues, and we keep arguing from their foundation, from the argument they present.  For example, when it comes to gay marriage, they argue that marriage is a right, and to deny gay marriage is to deny a right.  How can you argue that you want to take away a right?  Conservatism is stifled by the premise.

The premise is wrong.  Why not ask, "Why is government involved in marriage in the first place?"  Do we really want bureaucrats defining the definition, and terms, of such a sacred institution?  Let churches handle marriage, let judges handle civil unions, and if a church wants to marry gays, they will benefit, or suffer, from the consequences.

How about abortion?  They once again use the "it's a right" premise.

Since when is murder a right?  Besides, it is a State issue.  Leave it alone at the federal level, and argue it at the State level.  Use the Constitution, which we all say we agree upon, as our verbal weapon.

Meanwhile, the IRS scandal, as well as the other "phony" scandals that are plaguing the phony president, need to be hammered on.  But the Republican Party is afraid to.  They don't want to rock the boat.  How are they the opposition party if they aren't willing to oppose the opposition?

The Republicans need to work to defund, and get rid of, Obamacare, and they need to focus on the scandals and show the clear distinction between the parties, and between conservatism and liberalism.

But they aren't, and they won't.

The Republicans in Congress don't fear us.  They, instead, fear the media, and the attacks by the democrats.  They don't want to look bad, so they capitulate.  So, in the end, with all of the problems we are having, we must remember that the biggest problem is that the GOP politicians don't fear their voters.  Conservatives don't like big government, and the career politicians of the Republican Party want to continue to participate in big government, and until they feel we are willing to end their little party, they will keep up the garbage.

We aren't pushing them, we aren't lobbying, and we don't scare them.

We must do more than scream and yell and send emails.  We must make them believe we can stop their money, and stop their reign.  We must go to townhalls, and respectfully inform them where we stand.  We must be on central committees, and we must operate within the system.

We need to be more than complainers.  We need to be activists.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary