A recent Washington Times article posed a critical question: will the Republicans choose the Constitution or the money? The Republican Party has been ravaged by an internecine battle fought between the forces of “conservatism” on one side and “constitutionalism” on the other. These former tent mates have come out in open antagonism against each other with the control of the GOP as the spoils promised to the winner.
In the 2010 mid-term elections, there were any number of would-be legislators who wisely fought for election under the various Tea Party-affiliated banners. They reckoned, mostly correctly, that their alliance with this burgeoning rebel faction would propel them to national prominence and a seat in the palaces of power on the Potomac.
Having been awarded their triumph, these once committed (at least nominally) constitutionalists almost immediately began their incremental and insidious transformation into compromisers and capitulators. These despicable traits are now and have for over a century been the sine qua non of the ambitious lawmaker with an eye toward leadership and longevity.
News outlets have chronicled the betrayal. From the renewal of key unconstitutional provisions of the ironically named PATRIOT Act, to the deal on the federal budget, these outsiders have revealed their true partisan colors and have assumed the mantle of the loyal opposition, representing nothing more than a shadow of an obstacle on the statist path to serfdom.
A few headlines are representative: Can the GOP Recover its Principles?; Republicans Ignore Principle in Pursuit of Agenda; Does Gop Have Spine To Stand On Principle And Resist Compromise, and so on.
This subjugation of principle to party is not a new phenomenon. Thomas Jefferson loathed the association of his name with any party even one with whom he may have had many beliefs in common.
I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in any thing else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.
The discrepancy in the extent and fervor of the dissatisfaction of the electorate is easily explained away. To voters, particularly Tea Party-affiliated voters, this crop of freshmen lawmakers are perceived to have broken their campaign vows to reduce government and break the cycle of deficit increases. Their erstwhile supporters feel betrayed and used. Many feel that these candidates who at one time drew near them with their lips, had their hearts far from them once they started breathing the self-congratulating and incumbent-friendly atmosphere of Washington, D.C.
As one story described the situation:
Republican voters began feeling disenfranchised in 2005-2006 when core conservative principles were discarded by a GOP in search of the independent and liberal vote. The outcry of being constituents without representation rang true in conservative circles. Unwarranted spending sprees and unprotected borders had dire consequences for the GOP in 2008 as liberals swept the vote. Once burned, voters today warn that a GOP that compromises values, rights and freedoms could mean the death knell of the party. In 2010, after two harried years of Barack Obama, voters put the GOP on life-support, which opened the door for a fragile recovery a recovery that relies on spending cuts, de-funding Obamacare, restraints on the EPA and an end to onerous backdoor, economy-killing government regulations. The Republican Party has prospects for new life a half-life at best until it proves itself to be a party of leadership in defense of the Constitution, adherence to fiscal responsibility and Americans God-given rights and liberties.
What will be the eventual outcome of this immigration from Constitution to collaboration?
The truth is that both parties have demonstrated a contempt for American freedom and free markets that has pushed our nation into its current economic malaise.
The only good news? With unconstitutional individual mandates, massive tax hikes and crushing debt payments looming, it wont be long before the rest of the country realizes just what a threat to their liberties their own government has become.
Finally, the question that is not asked often enough is why we need to wage this battle against politicians who promise to hew faithfully to the principles of freedom upon which our Constitution is the fullest expression, and then just as soon as they take their seat in Congress or the White House they desert these principles, manifesting a deception typical of nearly all seekers of power.
The solution to this biennial betrayal is to courageously exercise the right of suffrage removing compromisers and capitulators from the offices to which we elected them and replacing them (as often as need be) with those men and women who declare their intent to resist the allure of the songs of the seductive sirens who dwell on the banks of the Potomac.
And, then, if and when these too betray us, the search begins again. There can be no other standard by which all are measured than the Constitution. Deviation from this standard disqualifies any and all who would court the favor of those of us who will never give quarter to the enemies of freedom no matter which partys banner they sail under.
