Factions Within The Conservative Movement

It is likely that these next two elections will determine what America will be. Will it be the land of the free and the home of the brave? Will it be the land of opportunity, the land of freedom to be all that you can dream of and are willing to work to be? Or is it going to be a Marxist state where we are all subjects to the government.

Personally, my goal is to work to try to communicate a message to the many different factions within the conservative movement that have emerged today in protest to the progressive movement under Obama. I am confident that I am not going to be able persuade those 20 some percent who are progressives, but if we can get the 42% who consider themselves to be conservatives, and enough of those in the middle to vote together as a block, we can right this ship.

There are some very disturbing things starting to show themselves within the conservative movement. Things that can derail all the positives in several ways. Some are out of a combination of passion and ignorance, others are much more deeply disturbing.

1. There are many who are new to the political arena, they have become passionate advocates for the Constitution, for liberty, and for our American values they see under attack. This is wonderful, and long overdue, but with this newness there is a lot of misinformation, or lack of understanding of how our system of government works. This can be remedied by an outreach to educate them so that they can direct their passions effectively.

2. There are many who are buying into the throw all the bums out mentality, the idea that everyone in office is somehow tainted. What they are not understanding is civics once again, not realizing that their are many good men and women who as elected officials are on the front line of this fight, but are powerless to do much by their being grossly outnumbered in the House and Senate, and that the media refuses to cover the opposition. Again, this can be improved through education.

3. There are many who say that they will not support the Republican Party until it "changes" and endorses more conservative candidates. This is also a lack of education. My next blog will be about this topic in detail, however, for a short answer. What is the party, but a collection of people. It is not some far away place or organization, it is you and I. If we want to change it all we have to do is change it. It is ripe for a change right now as well. Nearly half of the precincts across the country do not even have a GOP precinct committeeman. If conservatives or tea partiers run, it would probably be unopposed for those posts, you would be the ones voting to determine which candidate the party supports. So you would then be the "them" you're complaining about. If you want to fix it, fix it.

4. Then there is another group that I am running into that are frightening to me. They are the new anarchists. There are a surprising and disturbing amount of people who believe that it is time to start anew. There is a loud voice for nullification of Federal laws by states, and even a strong call for their states to secede from the Union. Often when I am debating them they will condemn Lincoln as a tyrant and dictator, it is obvious that they are emotionally still fighting the Civil War. In debating them, it is clear that their history is fuzzy, if not outright erroneous. It seems that they are so emotionally tied to their beliefs, maybe even generational, that there is no way to get logic past their emotions.

A friend of mine taught me an example of these strong emotions overcoming logic year ago. Fritz is the president of a large pharmaceutical and medical device company in Germany. He is a brilliant man, he holds seven doctorate degrees including an MD. He also speaks five languages fluently. Yet, this intelligent, educated man reverts to the little boy who during W.W. II would climb up on street lamps to see whose house or apartment building was burning after a bombing. He truly believes in his heart that the Americans tried to poison the German citizens after the end of the War by feeding them corn bread. That somehow it was designed to suck the nutrients and cause malnutrition in the German people. Of course this is absurd, and this man if told this today would reject it out of hand, yet that little boy who lives inside still believes what he was told by those around him at that time.

I have no idea how to penetrate these long held emotional and illogical beliefs. If anyone has any ideas, please share them. Will you join me in reaching out to the different groups to bring them together under one banner to vote as a block this fall and in 2012?