FAITH IS FAITH AND POLITICS IS…FAITH TOO

When the economy shrinks points in the first quarter of the year with no media comments other than the talk show hosts, one might conclude the fix is in.  Certainly the administration does a well publicized brag when the economy grows an anemic half point.  This administration – by the way – is so sold out to environmental activists like hundred million dollar donor Tom Steyer they block construction of oil pipelines worth twenty thousand jobs and prevent the Crow Nation from developing enormous fields of mineral wealth and natural gas on their supposedly sovereign reservation in Montana.  Of course this administration is a bunch of Democrats.  What about the Republicans?

            Well, what about the Republicans?

            Even though Barack Obama translated the economy from bad to disaster bad, it was the Republicans who dropped us into recession in the first place.  They did nothing serious to reduce regulations or advance the social issues dear to the hearts of most conservatives when they had power in Washington or Sacramento.  They gave us tepid candidates like McCain and Romney at the federal level alongside Kashkari, Whitman and Schwarzenegger in California.  (Four of the five lost badly, but all the wealthy power brokers backed them.)  They torpedoed their own nominees – in California – Elizabeth Emken and Tim Donnelly.  In Virginia the sacrificial lamb was Ken Cuccinelli and in Mississippi they knifed Chris McDaniel as he was coasting to victory over establishment Republican Thad Cochran.   The bottom line is the establishment in both parties is far more interested in comfort and power than winning elections.  They do not want winners who challenge the status quo.  Think Kevin McCarthy.

            Don’t get me wrong.  There are plenty of fine and principled conservatives in the Republican Party.  Some – like California State Senator Jim Nielsen and Congressman Doug LaMalfa – I am proud to call my friends.  But the established Republican Party is either suicidal or hiding the true intentions of those who make policy and sign support checks for candidates.  I believe it is time for conservatives to form a third party. 

            Before anyone begins to scream, “Third parties never win!” let’s review.  It is true third parties never win in the beginning.  Teddy Roosevelt and Ross Perot achieved nothing more than victory for their enemies and loss for their former friends when they tried it in 1912 and 1992.  But anyone looking for a quick fix for our constitutional republic has been smoking wacky weed.  It took a long time to destroy the strongest economy and the baddest reputation for strength with integrity – making tyrants tremble – to a power more interested in making its own citizens tremble than fanatical Islamo-fascists – a power that abandons its own Marines held captive by a Mexican drug cartel – Armando Torres – and the Mexican Government – Andrew Tahmoressi. 

The Republican Party began life as a third party in 1854.  They lost every election they entered until Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861.  We are in for the long haul or a pointless existence – it’s time to choose.   

I am not advancing theocracy here – they never govern well and they have been attempted since Biblical times – militant Islam is just the latest and most brutal incarnation.  But I want to point out the most successful third party in history was also one of the first: Ancient Israel.  When Moses came on the scene what became the nation of Israel was a gaggle of captive peoples with citizenship in the theocracy of the Egyptian Empire.  The core of the Exodus was peopled by descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the Bible is clear they were a hybrid community.  It took them forty years to win their first election.  That was the night Egypt sent them packing wearing pockets packed with Egyptian gold and jewels.

            Egypt went back on her word to abide by the results, but by this time the Hebrews had grown strong.  And they had a Friend who could part the sea itself.

            I am not advocating a theocratic party or movement.  But every political movement is grounded in faith of some kind.  Politics is simply the application of that faith to a plan of practical action in the secular arena.  There are elements in the Republican Party committed to the Judeo-Christian faith and values in which this nation is rooted.  They believe in freedom of religion and enterprise for all and they have no use for rule by the mullahs of any faith.  I am one of them and I believe it is time for us to get packed and headed for the Red Sea.  We might even find a Friend awaiting our arrival.