It's Time For Conservatives To Play By The New Rules

We conservatives have spent far too long playing by the old rules when liberals have completely changed the game. There was a time when laws meant what they said, when individual rights were important, when the government did not make it its business to oppress the executive’s ideological opponents, and when principles mattered. But that time has passed.

There’s a new set of rules, and while we don’t have control in Washington right now, we do have control most everywhere else – and someday a conservative will be president again. So there is no reason not to get going right now playing by the same rules the liberals do!

Of course, first we need to understand the basis of the new rules – it’s about having the moral courage to obtain and keep power. Until now, we conservatives have been guided by “principles” and “values” that only serve to distract us from what’s really important. Under the new rules, we will no longer let arbitrary ideas about how America should work get in the way of maximizing our ability to exercise our authority over others. After all, our supremacy is a moral imperative.

We will step beyond obsolete notions about process and embrace the primacy of results. We will stop treating “means” and “ends” like they are distinct and different – as 1984 (Read it – lots of great tactics, techniques and procedures!) teaches, “Power is not a means; it is an end.” Means and ends will flow together seamlessly, and we will stop getting hung-up on how we do things and focus on the real goal under the new rules – consolidating our power for the greater good.

Take the law. Under the old rules, judges were constrained by the plain meaning of the text, but that is far too restrictive. Words must mean what we need them to mean, no more and no less. We have to appoint judges who won’t prattle on about “judicial restraint” and “not legislating from the bench,” and who will reliably rule exactly how we need them to rule on each and every case. Let’s appoint judges, who understand that their purpose is to rationalize rulings that support our policy priorities, not seek some “legally correct” decision that might not. The law of the land is whatever we want it to be!

We should celebrate Judge Roberts’s recent Obamacare decision - it was liberating! He made it clear that when we want a different result, we don’t have to be deterred by the fact that the law means exactly the opposite. He affirmed that judges should interpret statutes – and the Constitution too – based upon a subjective desire for a particular outcome. Think of the possibilities for conservative progress if we aren’t hamstrung by some inconvenient text in a statute or the literal meaning of the words on some ancient parchment!

Where we have control of law enforcement, we have another great opportunity to play by the new rules. There are all sorts of liberal organizations out there shamelessly advocating policies and ideas we disapprove of. As we have learned, we can turn the power of the government upon them to root out this wrongdoing. We do not need to bother with accusing them of any kind of specific crime – why should we restrict our investigations to clear violations of laws? Instead, we can launch fishing expeditions to see what we can dig up – and even if there’s nothing, well, remember that the process is the punishment. Regardless, it’s important to establish that our political opponents will pay a price for presuming to oppose us.

And, naturally, when our allies are accused of breaking the law, we just ignore it. There needs to be two sets of laws – one for us, and one for everyone else. Otherwise, we might be constrained from doing what we please.

And there are other opportunities a huge government can provide us. Beyond audits and blocking vital certifications, the IRS has plenty of juicy information on every American – we can selectively release it to intimidate those who do not support us. And when we get a hold of everyone’s medical records under Obamacare – wow! What an opportunity!

Of course, there will not be any Obamacare. Oh, technically it might be hard to repeal (though getting rid of the filibuster entirely will make it much easier!), but who needs to repeal it when we can just choose not to enforce it? Our next president simply has to instruct the rest of the executive branch that they will not be taking any action with regard to implementing Obamacare, not collecting any of its taxes (they are taxes this week, right?) and not enforcing any of its mandates. Understand that we won’ be refusing to carry out the law – we’ll just be focusing on different executive priorities!

Perhaps the mainstream media will speak up, at least at first. But, you know, the New York Times, NBC and the rest really seem to have way too much power over our national conversation. It just isn’t fair how these big companies drown out the voices of regular people. Heck, these corporate entities are not even people and certainly should not have rights like people do to speak freely and so forth. They are more of a public utility, and frankly, they have not been serving the public good. That’s why we will use the FCC to take charge and oversee the shamefully deregulated mainstream media. We especially need some sort of doctrine to ensure fairness that forces the Washington Post and CNN to give a fair hearing to conservative ideas, religious views, and traditional values.

You know, there’s been a lot of bigotry against conservatives, religious people, and traditional Americans, and it is time the government took action by concentrating its anti-discrimination efforts on those spewing hate against them. We will have to root out policies and practices that result in such prejudice. Step one is focusing on colleges, where hate against normal Americans runs amok. Colleges that refuse to conform will lose their funding and tax exempt status – oh, and we will be taxing excessive endowments too. Schools like liberal Harvard have billions socked away, money that could be better used serving working Americans’ priorities than those of wealthy college administrators.

And speaking of billions, Hollywood and the entertainment industry need our attention. They spew out a tremendous amount of hate against conservatives, religious people, and traditional Americans, and that kind of intolerance simply cannot be tolerated. We’ll need to take action under the discrimination laws to punish the kind of offensive words and portrayals that make normal Americans feel unsafe and marginalized in theaters and their own homes.

Moreover, those in Hollywood and in the high tech world are getting far too rich. They are simply not paying their fair share – remember that their wealth came from the regular Americans who buy movie tickets and iPhones, and it is only right that these rich liberals give something back to working American families.

A 40% surcharge on all Hollywood and Silicon Valley windfall profits would go a long way towards making things fairer – and this has nothing to do with the fact that most Hollywood and Silicon Valley political money goes to our opponents. But don’t worry about our conservative allies in those two fields – if they don’t pay we just won’t prosecute them! But if you’re liberal, watch out!

Of course, it’s entirely possible that we and the Hollywood and high tech moguls can resolve the issues that led to them pouring money into our enemy’s coffers and come to some understanding that keeps us from having to rollback copyright protections on their intellectual property to, say, ten years.

This is only the beginning – the new rules liberate us from the constraints that for so long kept us from truly making conservative progress. All those “principles” and “ideals” about right and wrong and all that only served to take our eyes off of the real prize – our power, which we would only use for the common good.

Sure, we were all sad to see the old rules go, but gone they are. Our liberal friends made sure of that. So let’s make the best of it!

While this article was dripping with sarcasm directed at the left, the truth is that conservatives *do* need to make changes, *not* in what they do, but in what the liberal Republican leadership does in support of the left.

1) Mitch McConnell and John Boehner and their ilk must be turned out of power, and hopefully out of office. The Tea Party has had great success and the local and state level, and continues to erode the liberal Republicans hold on power. Granted there have been some setbacks, as “the empire struck back”; but we still outnumber them and have greater power with our votes if we can maximize it.

2) When conservatives take the place of McConnell and Boehner, they cannot ignore (yet again) the institutional abuse inflicted them in the senate and the house by the Democrats. In the senate, the Democrats must be brutalized by the *same* power grabbing, punitive rules they inflicted on Republicans. Absolutely no need to (yet again) insist on playing fair after they have horribly cheated (yet again). They must feel *pain* for their bad behavior, and be stripped of the power that McConnell has (yet again) given *back* to them.

3) Conservatives must take *all* the chairmanships in both houses, with preference *not* to seniority, but to individual resolve to make major reforms in that area of interest. In the budget, they must slash and burn the size of the federal government, close entire agencies, fire hundreds of thousands of government bureaucrats, and use the power of the purse to force agencies to end the onerous and oppressive regulatory regime on the country.

In the judiciary committees, they must undertake a comprehensive reform of all federal courts subordinate to the SCOTUS (the only federal court created in the constitution, the rest being subordinate to congress.) This means placing “off limits” to the lower courts those numerous abuses of the judiciary. Vast numbers of petty arguments best left to the states, having no constitutional issue of merit.

This reform includes the restructuring of the courts to retire hundreds of federal judges because there are no longer courts for them to occupy; but *new* courts, needing new (conservative) judges. Other reforms include strict limits on the use of judicial precedent, that it absolutely *must* be constitutional before it can be used, even if it is a hundred years old. They also need to restore both the state and federal capital punishment laws, protecting them from federal judge tinkering and abuse, and making them swift and sure. The federal death row should be emptied through execution.

4) Other committees should be prepared to return the bulk of federal lands taken from the states, to the states. With the help of the conservative POTUS for the senate to abrogate and end numerous onerous international treaties, agreements and obligations. Importantly, the US military must be restored by again making “mission accomplishment” its goal and eliminating vast amounts of leftist social engineering. If that means booting out sexual deviants, so be it. The military is not a welfare program. And speaking of which:

5) The methodical end to Real ID, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (turned into a bloc grant), and the return of the US Census to an “actual enumeration of citizens”. Changing the law so that if someone’s birth parents are not citizens, neither are they. Ending any and all funding to organizations that promote abortion. Making a new law to protect religious beliefs “in the marketplace”.

Turning airport security back to the states, the airports themselves, and the airlines. Reducing the Patriot Act and similar law so that it only applies to terrorists and their supporters, not ordinary citizens, even if they break ordinary laws.

6) Major reform to the 17 Intelligence Agencies and the 100+ federal police agencies. Especially consolidating them. Disarm all non-police and non-intelligence agencies.

On top of this, the conservative POTUS must direct his federal prosecutors to arrest and indict federal officials who have engaged in criminal activity while in office and under the color of authority. Lois Lerner, James Hansen at NASA GISS, a bunch of BATF&E officials, and hundreds like them should face the real prospect of federal prison.

7) After these gigantic changes to the federal government, and many, many more, before he leaves office, the POTUS must agree to downgrade and restore constitutionality to the office of the POTUS. This means prohibiting things like Presidential Signing Statements, Czars, and strict limits on executive privilege and recess appointments.

There also needs a restoration of the War Powers Act, the Posse Comitatus Act, and other laws ignored by presidents.

That is an interesting take but it is quite a bit more complex a situation. Allende was acting unlawfully when communists began seizing private property and Allende did nothing. If anything, Pinochet was patient and extremely reluctant to take any action but gave Allende plenty of time to restore order. It became clear Allende was going to let the mobs take over. Law and order had ended in Chile and Allende ruled arbitrarily.

Pinochet interceded to restore order. He arrested the lawbreakers and suspected supporters. Those who resisted were shot, no differently than any other criminal might expect if they resist arrest. Pinochet made it clear that once order had been restored, there would be elections and a return to Constitutional rule of law.

In the absence or selective enforcement of law, Pinochet restored law. It is hard to find men such integrity today. I’ll take it your tag line is a positive and I would suggest Pinochet acted lawfully and not like a leftist.

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