For conservatives, one of the biggest disappointments over the past few decades of political evolution in America is the consistent inability of the GOP to clearly and strongly articulate and pursue an agenda that reflects conservative principles. Even when a strong conservative President, e.g., Ronald Reagan, takes the helm, there are always more than a few Republicans who immediately set out to water down or derail the leader’s attempts to change the leftward drift of this country. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party remains firmly and unwaveringly committed to achieving their goals: a more powerful Federal government, a more socialist, pro-government judiciary system, more dismantling of traditional culture, less American national autonomy, and less individual freedom. The result has been the steady expansion of Federal power, court rulings supporting that expansion, and a dramatic erosion of the rights of individual Americans. Unless conservatives can start agreeing on basic principles and policies, we will never reverse this trend and the American Republic is destined for the ash heap of history.
The way to start that needed reversal is to agree to some major policies/objectives and support candidates who push those policies and defend them despite everything the media and the Democrat party throws at them. Conservative voters need to show flexibility in supporting candidates who may not be perfectly aligned with the GOP agenda, but who are far more aligned than Democrats. However, that does NOT mean that conservatives should support GOP leaders and candidates who abandon our first principles: less/smaller government, especially at the Federal level; an originalist judiciary system; support for free market capitalism; an “America first” orientation in the international community; and an unabashed and fearless support of divinely ordained individual freedom. So, what would the conservative platform look like if we could agree on those bedrock principles? An exhaustive list would be long enough for the “War and Peace” of politics, but a few critical policies issues will suffice to illustrate how this could work.
One of the biggest divides in the GOP is between fiscal conservatives who believe that controlling government debt is the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, and those who consider it a top priority, but also realize that if Congress remains substantially populated with socialist Democrats, GOP power to stop the abuse of the public treasury is severely hampered. Throw in the treachery of RINOs like Paul Ryan, John Boehner, John Kasich, Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell, and we forever have a recipe for business as usual on spending. Conservatives who embrace reducing government spending as the only thing that matters hate Trump with a purple passion because he spent way too much. Of course, their hatred and lack of support for the GOP candidate in 2020 paved the way for the election of the most pathetic President in the history of this country: Joe Biden, a witless, corrupt, perverse liar with a record of failure and criminality that is a disgrace to this nation. Meanwhile, they abandoned a candidate who had supported every other conservative goal: Trump slashed government regulation, appointed judges with an originalist view of the Constitution, encouraged business development in America, put America first in his international negotiations, supported small businesses and cut taxes, thus allowing Americans to keep more of what they earned. However, Trump failed to rein in spending, and for that a lot of conservatives hate him. The lesson here is that three quarters of a pie is better than none. Take a longer view and vote for the lesser of two evils, if necessary. Trump’s Presidency did one incredibly important thing. It showed Americans that conservative policies can bring economic prosperity. That fact should have given the GOP the political clout to win the Presidency again and use that legitimacy to go after government spending in Trump’s second term. Instead, we got Biden and a tidal wave of higher spending. Conservatives need to agree; if a candidate supports smaller government, less spending and lower taxes, then delivers on two of those three items, that is VICTORY, not a failure.
Another place conservatives need to show some appreciation for nuance is in the arena of border control and immigration. Many conservatives blasted Trump for building a border wall. They accused him of pursuing a project that would have limited effect and was nothing more than window dressing. It is sadly ironic that a bunch of politicians who live and die by window dressing and marketing campaigns would bash a President for doing the same thing. However, the wall had the effect Trump and other conservatives wanted. It sent a clear message to other countries and their citizens: do not try to illegally enter America!!
Trump combined that with aggressive policies to penalize countries who enabled/encouraged illegal immigration and it worked like a charm. Still, many conservatives blasted Trump for not pushing harder for employer sanctions, national ID cards and reductions of benefits for illegal aliens. Those measures would be nice and might have been easier to get into place once folks had started seeing the benefits of the Trump approach, but instead we have Biden and a border that no longer exists between America and Mexico. It is literally a national disaster the extent of which is hard to calculate. One wonders if those conservatives who put some much importance on employer sanctions seriously believe that cartel members smuggling drugs, guns, sex slaves and other illegal aliens into America would be deterred by employer sanctions. Any candidate advocating stronger border controls of any nature should have unwavering conservative support.
The ascension of an arrogant, dishonest, and anti-Constitution Justice to the SCOTUS shines a light on how important an independent, Constitutionally guided judiciary is, and how completely the Democrat party has abandoned that principle. She is woman who has praised writers who hate America and believes this nation is racist. She has coddled pedophiles and stated that she has no idea what a woman is since she lacks a degree in Biology. Perhaps she does not grasp the difference between an adult and child either. Not being a biologist would make that distinction harder for her to detect, thus leading to her lenient sentences for the sexually abusive felons she was judging. Of course, the reason she was able to be nominated despite those huge issues, is because GOP members of the Judiciary committee voted to appoint her to the Court of Appeals!!
In many ways this issue of GOP Senators and Presidents nominating what the left-wing media and Democrats call “centrist” judges is the worst offense against conservatism. Ketanji Jackson Brown will likely spend decades on the SCOTUS making decisions detrimental to America and subversive of the Constitution. She is plainly a bigot, and if she was white with similar attitudes toward black Americans as she has expressed toward white people, she would never have made it to the Appeals Court. There is no middle ground here. Judges either support the Constitution as it was written and uphold laws that are respectful of that document when they issue their decisions, or they do not.
If they do not, they should NEVER be supported by GOP legislators and officials for a judicial position at any level. If the GOP were to have a litmus test, this should be it. Because of the American system’s reliance on precedence, judges have outsized impact on our society over long periods of time. We cannot afford to gradually surrender our system to people who do even believe in it! This is one of the few areas where we cannot compromise and legislators who do need to be targeted for replacement by the GOP with people who support conservative judges, and consistently and publicly oppose liberal, activist judges.
The list of policies could go on for pages: abortion rights, energy policy, corporate welfare, economic engineering by bureaucrats, onerous and illegal government regulation, etc., etc., etc. The point would still be made, conservatives need to consistently and enthusiastically support candidates who advance our first principles even if they do so in a way that is not exactly how we would like them to do it. We also need to give unwavering support to leaders who boldly, publicly and effectively advocate for and implement policies that align with our goals. Equally important, those same leaders need to lead the fight against policies that undermine those goals and principles.
A model for that type of leadership right now is Governor Rick DeSantis in Florida. Despite vicious and unending attacks from the left-wing media empire and the Democrat Party, he has steadfastly pursued policies that align with conservative values. Predictably, those policies have served his state very well and incited the hatred of Democrats and liberals nationwide. Nothing enrages a liberal more than seeing average Americans prosper, especially if they are conservative, Christian, self-employed/capitalist, or heterosexual. Another thing conservatives need to agree on, if Democrats and the media hate a mainstream GOP candidate, conservatives should immediately support that candidate. After all, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. This approach can and will begin to dismantle the Democrat/media machine that has done some much damage to our nation.
If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN. If you’d like to become a citizen contributor for AFNN, contact us at managingeditor@afnn.us
Truth Social: @AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
Parler: https://parler.com/AFNNUSA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA