Principle Over Profits

RedState ^ | June 17th, 2014 at 04:30 AM | Erick Erickson

[SoConPubbie]

Yesterday at the New York Meeting, a gathering of conservatives in New York, Haley Barbour said the GOP’s goal should not be purity. He also praised Eric Cantor.

There is a great disconnect in the political press and among politicians like Haley Barbour over the endgame of conservatives in America. It is not actually about purity for the sake of purity. It never has been. What it has been about is getting people into office who mean what they say and say what they mean. It has, in other words, been about putting men and women in office who put principle about profit.

And frankly, for all the attacks on Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and outside groups — what it really amounts to is guys like Haley Barbour and others have chosen profit over principle and they do not get those of us who want principles first.

Conservatives understand we will not win every race and we understand we cannot win in every district. But we also understand that Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and Rand Paul and Jim Bridenstine and Raul Labrador and Marlin Stutzman and all the others are putting their principles ahead of lobbyist dollars.

Haley Barbour, like so many before and after him, is a lobbyist. Principle hurts his bottom line. He has to find some way to sell his ideas so those he advocates for can get their agenda through Congress. That leaves guys like Cruz spending most of their time saying “No.” In the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” world of Washington, principle manifests itself most often by the word “no”.

Certainly conservatives want conservatives in Congress. We want, where we can get them, better conservatives. But what we want most, and the reason we are fighting so hard in primaries, is because we keep seeing so called conservatives go to Washington then settle for a price at the expense of their principles.

And the price that turns the profit is always making Washington work for some large donor or client writing checks somewhere, which in turn means Washington is never leaving us the hell alone. That, again, is why it is so crucial we get people like Chris McDaniel to Washington. It is also why so many in Mississippi and Washington are opposed to McDaniel. He, like Cruz and Lee, will go for principle over profit. He won’t be bought.

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[Nifster]

I am so sick of Eric and his lib point of view. He would take any GOPe over a true conservative. He long ago jumped the shark. I put him in the same camp as Ann What’s Her Name (and don’t bother...I know it)

[exDemMom]

I read an article yesterday about how people tend to lose sight of their own morality when they are placed into a group situation. They suppress their own internal code of conduct in favor of the group code of conduct.

I think this may explain a lot of what happens when we elect someone who speaks like a true conservative, and he or she goes to DC and suddenly becomes one of the beltway crowd.

A solution to this would be to keep representatives at home, with maybe a meeting in DC every 6 months. With VTC and email, there is no need for them to live and work full time in DC. Being kept at home would help to keep them grounded in their principles.

[dalereed]

It’s called the purpose of business.

Profit is the only reason for business to exist.