For quite some time I have been concerned about the nasty attacks that are being made by "Republicans" against Republicans who do not meet their ideological requirements, thereby violating one of Ronald Reagan’s most important commandments, “Thou shalt not speak ill of your fellow Republicans.”  This past week a series of posts over at GOP Progress  and conservative attacks on Liz Mair have only illustrated the problem.  Until recently, I’ve never known Republicans of any ilk (liberal, moderate, or conservative) to be attacked so viciously by others who claim to be Republican.  Until recently there was never a cult-like ideology where anyone who claimed to be a Republican must pass a litmus test.

 

You can’t run a political party or entice voters that way.  It reeks of the foul stench of a cult.  In a cult people are brainwashed, harassed, and sometimes tortured until they agree with the views of the self-proclaimed leader.  Unfortunately this is what appears to be happening with various and sundry ideologically RIGHT conservatives who have decided they are the true Republicans and anyone who disagrees with them needs to be excommunicated from the party.

 

This is a recipe for electoral disaster.  We saw it in November when we lost the House and the Senate.  If we are not careful and if all factions of the GOP do not grow up and behave like adults, we’re going to be losing elections for a very long time. 

 

The Republican Party is a “Big Tent Party” where many views are allowed and based on party principles, people are allowed freedom of thought, assembly, and speech.  To constantly harass and threaten those who do not 100% agree with an ideology is not what the Republican Party stands for at all. The very act of doing so makes one wonder if the party doing the harassing even knows what it is to be a Republican.

 

The Republican Party stands for freedom.  To disallow that very practice within the party is disaster, abject disaster.  It is time for those individuals and groups who feel we are not RIGHT enough for them to sit back, take a deep breath, and get a grip on life.  If you do not begin using your head to think things through in a logical intelligent manner, you are doing nothing but helping Howard Dean liberals.  Maybe that is what you want.  I don’t know.  I do know we have a serious problem and it isn’t coming from GOP members who are liberal, moderate, or Reagan Conservatives.  It is coming from people who have usurped the party and turned it into something Ronald Reagan would never allow.

 

“…And just to set the record straight, let me say this about our friends who are now Republicans but who do not identify themselves as conservatives: I want the record to show that I do not view the new revitalized Republican Party as one based on a principle of exclusion. After all, you do not get to be a majority party by searching for groups you won’t associate or work with. If we truly believe in our principles, we should sit down and talk. Talk with anyone, anywhere, at any time if it means talking about the principles for the Republican Party. Conservatism is not a narrow ideology, nor is it the exclusive property of conservative activists….”

Last Sunday I began the Pink Flamingo posting with this quote and ended with the following comment:  Okay, what idiot would be so brazen as to say something like that?  Would you believe Ronald W. Reagan on Feb. 6, 1977?

                                                                    

Unfortunately during the past few months a battle seems to be growing within the Republican Party. It is between the ranks of those who feel they are the heirs of the message of Reagan and the keeper of the flame and everyone else.  The perfect illustration of the problems we are now experiencing is a comment that was posted over on The Pink Flamingo the other day.  I am not revealing the name of the woman who posted it.

 

“Lindsey Graham is a big moderate. He wants media adulation, like McCain, on fact his main goal seems to be to impress McCain: he says whatever Mcain (sic)  does. There are many instances of Graham RINO'ing it up: Gang of 14, the torture bill, this summer on military tribunals, etc. He's pretty spineless on most things- not a true conservative. Rush does the same thing to McCain, because you can't respect them as conservatives.”

Kristin’s comment proves my oft stated point that today’s RIGHT conservatives who claim to be Republican have no earthly idea just who or what Ronald Reagan was and what  he actually believed.  In the same Feb. 6, 1977 (The Shining City on the Hill speech) it is though Reagan knew his version of Conservativism would be perverted into some sort of a cult.

 

 “…One thing that must be made clear in post-Watergate is this: The American new conservative majority we represent is not based on abstract theorizing of the kind that turns off the American people, but on common sense, intelligence, reason, hard work, faith in God, and the guts to say: "Yes, there are things we do strongly believe in, that we are willing to live for, and yes, if necessary, to die for." That is not "ideological purity." It is simply what built this country and kept it great.

 

Let us lay to rest, once and for all, the myth of a small group of ideological purists trying to capture a majority. Replace it with the reality of a majority trying to assert its rights against the tyranny of powerful academics, fashionable left-revolutionaries, some economic illiterates who happen to hold elective office and the social engineers who dominate the dialogue and set the format in political and social affairs. If there is any ideological fanaticism in American political life, it is to be found among the enemies of freedom on the left or right -- those who would sacrifice principle to theory, those who worship only the god of political, social and economic abstractions, ignoring the realities of everyday life. They are not conservatives. 

 

Our first job is to get this message across to those who share most of our principles. If we allow ourselves to be portrayed as ideological shock troops without correcting this error we are doing ourselves and our cause a disservice. Wherever and whenever we can, we should gently but firmly correct our political and media friends who have been perpetuating the myth of conservatism as a narrow ideology. Whatever the word may have meant in the past, today conservatism means principles evolving from experience and a belief in change when necessary, but not just for the sake of change…”

 

Now, do you understand the words of Ronald Reagan… “If there is any ideological fanaticism in American political life, it is to be found among the enemies of freedom on the left or right -- those who would sacrifice principle to theory, those who worship only the god of political, social and economic abstractions, ignoring the realities of everyday life. They are not conservatives…” 

Reagan understood that ideological conservatives from the far right were just as dangerous to the freedom of this nation as the ideological liberals from the far left.  They are on in the same.  The only difference in their cult-like adherence to an ideology is the fact that one is left and the other is right.

I'm a Republican Because...

I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.

I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

 

I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

 

I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.

 

I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.

 

I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

 

I BELIEVE Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

 

I BELIEVE Americans value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

 

FINALLY, I believe the Republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.

 

I think one of the problems we are facing within the Republican Party is the fact that people have lost sight of just what/who is a “real” Republican. Maybe we need a primer on just who Republicans are and what we stand for. 

 

Let’s start with the History of the GOP.