The 2016 GOP Primary has brought to the front an old divide in Conservatism. There currently is a war being waged between the Dogmatics and the Realists. The Dogmatist care nothing about political realities, only the purity of the candidate political dogma matters to them. The Realist understands you have to be able to advance the political ball down the field to achieve the goals of the dogma. The Realist understands some times a flawed tool is going work better then the flawlessly poltical pure tool.
Reagan, who was a realist, wrote about it.
By Ronald Reagan in his autobiography An American Life
“When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it. “Compromise” was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything. I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: ‘I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.’ If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.
Th Dogmatic at NR, Town Hall, Red State and the rest of the “Conservative” media sneer at the realist as being “nihlistic towards DC and the GOP”.
It is not Nihilism, it Realism. Since 1988 Conservatives have faithfully pledges their treasure and time to the GOP. Despite elections successes in 1988, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010 and 2014 what have Conservative gotten from the GOP?
Prosperity? Nope worse economy since 1979.
Reduction in Government-nope as expense, corrupt, incompetent, intrusive and bigger then ever
Supreme Court? Nope as far left as it has ever been.
A Nation secure? Nope at risk in a dangerous world. Military broken, exhausted and overextended.
A respect for rule of law and the Constitution? Nope. Goveremnt, and society, is more lawless then it has ever been.
A healthy growing vibrant society? Nope stagnant or in decline everywhere in every way.
So, it not Nihilism, it Realism. It is a realistic assessment that doing the same thing again this year electorally is going to continue this decline and degradation from DC.You can only overcome inertia in any system with force. So we need to force DC out of it denigrate path onto a new path. So why Trump rather then Cruz?
I know this falls on deaf ears with 100%ers at NR, Red State and other “Conservative” media but the fact remains, we are a Constitutional Republic that rests on the notion that the people’s Representatives in Government know how to compromise and negotiate.
This feeling that Cruz will ride into DC and dictate the Conservative Media’s 100%er terms to everyone else there is simply wishful thinking. What is more probably is Cruz would be a GOP Carter.
Carter was the same sort of religious political puritan who went to DC and assumed he would dictate his political dogmas to everyone there. The record shows how badly that idea failed.
“Conservative” politicians talk a good game and then go to DC and accomplish nothing. After 30 years of fail, it is time to try another solution. The winning candidate is, brace yourseelf.... going to have to cut DEALS! And some times those deals require..compromise!!!
Another fail point for the “Principled Conservatives” is they think only as far as the election. Then once they win their purity candidates go to DC and fail against the inertia of the DC/Media political machine. 1988-1994-1998-2000-2002-2004-2010-2014 are all example of where this “Next election” mindset has failed.
Trump is merely the 1st wave of a multi wave assault. Cruz might do for a follow up wave, he is not a 1st wave candidate. Without Trump to lead the way, the Cruz boat would of either been ignored because it was irrelevant, or been shelled into oblivion by the $10s of millions of GOPE attack ads.
The 1st wave job in any assault is to shatter the defenses and open the road for the follow up waves. No matter how flawed you think the vessel is, Trump is the best 1st wave political assault team we have had to hand in my lifetime.
We need to use Trump for all he is worth to shatter the corrupt, “my party right or wrong” mindset that grips vast swaths of the electorate. Break that inertia, get the people thinking outside the party label box and real change is possible. Do not an we slide into a stagnate European style decline that will not end in my lifetime. Cruz shares that agenda point but is not as well equipped by background and media following to achieve that break through as Trump
We either win this now or we have little chance of ever doing it again politically. Once we win we must relentlessly stay on the attack election wave after election wave until we are dead.
I am really not willing to leave this fight to my kids and grand-kids. We have let the ship of state drift since Reagan in the hands of the “smart people”. We failed and must redeem that failure.
This is our generation’s “go” time
I think this go around is a battle between two camps of pragmatists, where one camp is actually a NWO front, and Trump is not.
Break that inertia, get the people thinking outside the party label box and real change is possible. Do not an we slide into a stagnate European style decline that will not end in my lifetime.
Cruz shares that agenda point but is not as well equipped by background and media following to achieve that break through as Trump
We either win this now or we have little chance of ever doing it again politically. Once we win we must relentlessly stay on the attack election wave after election wave until we are dead.
I am really not willing to leave this fight to my kids and grand-kids. We have let the ship of state drift since Reagan in the hands of the “smart people”. We failed and must redeem that failure.
This is our generation’s “go” time
So good it had to be repeated.
Simply brilliant.
Thanks for the post
I hope people will read and reread your post a few times so they can learn it and internalize it.
Awesome, Johnnie!
Great post.
EVERYONE, please READ it.
It explains just why I am so skeptical of any Republican politician, despite how conservative he/she claims to be.
Having said that, Cruz is very conservative on most things, EXCEPT illegal immigration (Last year’s Teddy Bears from Ted), H-1B rise by 400% and the TPP. So I would not throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.
Totally right on the money.
I like your thinking on this. Trump needed to turn the ship around and add to the passengers, with someone like Cruz on board to explain why the direction we are now headed is beneficial too all individuals.
I can say that, being one of them myself--until 1971 (or maybe 1972) when I went back for a visit and "enjoyed" a temperature of 30 degrees below zero!
Cured me forever!!
:)
In the Texas primaries, Senator Cruz won, and yet all of the Congresscriters (Houston) were re-elected. RINOs all As you say, President Cruz would deal with the RINOs head on, President Trump will make YUUUUGE deals with the RINOs. Life goes on