David Jeffers

It’s My Party
November 7, 2008

I’m not going anywhere. I know that many of you Rockefeller and Beltway Republicans would just as soon see us hardcore conservatives and Christians go. Sorry, I’m not leaving. It’s my party too.

The old adage of being careful what you wish for is in order. Some moderate Republicans believe that the political moderates, independents, and conservative Democrats will more than make up the difference in lost conservatives.

Let me ask a question of those who believe that: How was that working out before Sarah Palin? How were fund raising, volunteerism, and campaign energy going before McCain picked Palin?

The Republican Party is at a crossroads. It can continue on the path that brought us a divisive and losing candidate like John McCain and eventually go the way of the Whig Party or it can experience a conservative resurgence.

A conservative resurgence can come to the Republican Party from a three-pronged approach. What I am proposing is a plan that will attract as much as seventy percent of American voters. That percentage is below the numbers found at American Solutions of Americans who possess traditional conservative values. Most Americans are conservative and either do not know it or reject the label that has come to mean all but its true meaning.

The first step in a conservative resurgence is the GOP leadership must be replaced with solid conservatives from county to state to national headquarters. This plan, which was shared with me by Rod Martin of TheVanguard.org, means attending monthly county party meetings. The more conservatives get involved locally, the more influence they will have. Once you get enough conservatives attending your county party meetings you can elect only conservative party officials.

If this happens in fifty percent plus one of the counties, you now have the numbers to accomplish the same thing at the state level. A coordinated effort among the majority of counties now means there are only conservative leaders running the state party.

The next step should be obvious. If twenty-six states elect conservative leaders, they now have the numbers to elect only conservative leaders at the national party headquarters. Now the national headquarters can work hand-in-hand with states to help bring reform to the primary process. We need to have closed primaries where only registered Republicans can vote. No more crossover voters, no more Operation Chaos in reverse.

Second step in the conservative resurgence is to nominate only conservative candidates at all levels of government. Government needs to once again be smaller, fiscally conservative, and less intrusive. We need strong Goldwater/Reagan conservatives who will lead and not be concerned with political correctness and worrying about the press liking them.

The third step is multi-faceted and the first part is the conservative movement must become constitutionally intelligent. The level of constitutional ignorance among most Americans is staggering. There are organizations such as BasicsProject.org that are doing a fine job of educating Americans and I highly encourage all to support them.

WE THE PEOPLE need to go back and read the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, including all the amendments. If enough Americans desire to see a Human Life Amendment and Traditional Marriage Amendment passed, they will discover that if the citizens of thirty-eight states demand passage of these amendments, we do not need the leadership of the executive and legislative branches (although it would be nice). More importantly the judicial branch is completely left out of the equation. They don’t have a vote in the amendment process.

Additionally, the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments need to be revoked. The Sixteenth Amendment brought the federal income tax system into effect. The Seventeenth Amendment took the election of the Senate from the state legislatures to the people. The states no longer have any influence over the federal government. States used to receive a bill from the federal government and if the federal government was spending too much money the states could yank on the collars of their senators. That was all ended with the enactment of these two amendments and thereby severely damaging our federalist form of government.

The most important part of step three is to punish the mainstream media. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press. With that freedom comes the constitutional responsibility to report the news in an unbiased manner. Benjamin Franklin, as a printer, said the following about a free press:

Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute. – Benjamin Franklin, “Apology for Printers” Pennsylvania Gazette, 1731

Jon Bartholomew of Common Cause answers the question of why the industry of a free press is constitutionally protected:

Simply said, a democracy can not function properly without the press informing the public, exposing voters to the marketplace of ideas, and holding public officials accountable.
– Common Cause Blog, September 17, 2008

Political commentary in the media is one thing, but the conduct of the majority of the media during this presidential election was at best negligent and at worse a dereliction of duty. All three major networks and most major newspapers maddeningly refused to research the background of Barack Obama and yet sent an army of reporters to Alaska to try to uncover dirt on Sarah Palin and her family. It is beyond incredulity the scrutiny that Joe the Plumber received and yet William Ayers was merely a man who lives down the street from Barack Obama.

As an evangelical I believe the road to redemption is always open, but with redemption must first come confession and repentance. Anything short of a mea culpa from the press requires the citizenry to punish the media. I am talking a forum where the heads of the major media outlets admit their negligence and bias in this last election cycle.

How likely is it that will happen? It will take time and discipline on our part. That means we not only stop watching the evening news, but also the morning news show and the news magazines such as CBS’ 60 Minutes, ABC’s Primetime, and NBC’s Dateline. Furthermore we contact their sponsors and ask them to stop advertising on these shows and if they refuse we boycott their products.

The same approach needs to be taken with the print media which is already suffering diminishing readership and revenue loss. We must never again buy their newspapers and need to take the same approach with their sponsors as outlined above.

It would be convenient to solely blame the mainstream media and moderate Republicans for the problems afflicting the conservative movement, but it would be a lie nonetheless. Too many conservative leaders, both elected and unelected, have allowed the dilution of conservative values.

The outgoing administration oversaw huge spending increases and government growth that are anathema to true conservatism. Too many Congressional Republicans, primarily in the Senate, were too concerned about “reaching across the aisle” and unfortunately John McCain led most of those endeavors.

A reasonable question is “If John McCain was part of the problem, why did you vote for him?” Fair enough! I voted for the candidate who I believed could do “the greater good.” It was and is clear in my mind our national security is still at risk and John McCain was the only candidate with the experience and character to face the dangerous unknown. As a 22-year Army veteran and a Gold Star father whose son “gave the last full measure,” I was unwilling to hand over the reigns of power to Barack Obama.

As an evangelical Christian I am sorely disappointed in the megachurch organizations such as the Family Research Council, American Center for Law and Justice, the Liberty Council, Focus on the Family, and the American Family Association, to name just a few. They have helped perpetuate the lie that Roe v Wade is “the law of the land” giving judicial review too much power. These organizations have given credence to the impossible notion of judicial tyranny. As I wrote in my Talon column “Ravaging the Republic Part 1”, “It is impossible for the judiciary to be tyrannical because it has no powers to exercise or abuse.” That power has been usurped by the executive and legislative branches.

Conservative and Christian leaders sat back and watched both Governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California illegally institute same-sex marriage by unlawfully ordering the alteration of marriage licenses to read “Partner A” and “Partner B” from “Husband” and “Wife.”

And speaking of Mitt Romney, if he had a “D” behind his name instead of a “R”, we Republicans would have castigated him for a being a flip-flopper worse than we did John Kerry. Instead too many conservative commentators and leaders, and evangelical leaders bought his lie because “he was saying the right things.” In other words, he had no deeds to back up his rhetoric, the same accusation we rightfully made about Barack Obama.

I became a Republican in 1980 and have been involved in party activities since then. That being said, I have been slack at times in writing my congressman and senators, keeping up on local, state, and national issues. This shift in our nation to more leftist tendencies did not happen overnight and under the cover of darkness.

Everything that has happened to America within its political system has happened because Americans have allowed it. We have allowed the cancerous entitlement mentality to spread and rot our society. We have Americans who believe it is their constitutional right to have the government provide them with a home, health care, and a job. You will not find that in any of our founding documents.

Many Conservatives and Christians have left the Republican Party out of frustration because they can no longer stomach the ever-moving shift to the left. It is understandable and tempting. However, I cannot in good conscience give up the fight for the party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

I’m not going anywhere; it’s my party.