Contract with America part II

As of press time, the House of Representatives has fallen under control of the Democrats, and the Senate is teetering on the brink, likely to fall as well. When I woke up this morning, I scratched my head and tried to figure out why.

I believe that it has nothing to do with the Democratic ideology by any stretch of the imagination. So then you must ask why is it that the Democrats won decidedly after 15 years of constant loosing (save for the ’96 Presidential)? I believe that it has a lot to do with leadership.

Say what you will about the leaders of the Democrats, but they had one thing in common that we did not. They had their charismatic leaders who were willing to fight for a common ideology and guard their weak and wounded members (i.e. William Jefferson of Louisiana).

Where is the leadership of the Conservative movement? With the demise and eventual passing of the greatest leader in my life time, President Ronald W. Reagan; coupled with the political destruction of Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, there currently is not a true Conservative leader anywhere. The latter two we can blame on the spineless RINOs who refused to stand up for them when they were being slandered by the left, but that’s another column.

While we have great Conservative talkers and soap boxes such as: Rush, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and the like, there are no leaders. Not one person who can take those bullies by their horns and show them the curb. That is why the Conservatives went down to defeat. Since Delay left the House, there has been absolutely no one giving us the direction or the message of direction from that top that most Americans want to hear.

You see, very few humans by nature are leaders. We are essentially group animals, and in any group there are a few leaders on the top rung of the pack and everyone else is a follower. Even if the leader is wrong, we follow them anyway because they are on top.

I believe that Tuesday’s choice was essentially between the people who had the wrong message and those who had no message. When those are the only two choices, most people who are followers by nature will tend to flow towards the bad message. This is why Communism so easily took root in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, China and Latin America. These people had the choice between a really bad government i.e. Communism; and no government (lawlessness). They chose bad government over no government, just as America did Tuesday.

All through out history, great positive leaders such as Moses, Alexander the Great, Ronald Reagan and Jesus Christ have been able to gather groups of otherwise ordinary people and through their charisma and leadership abilities press them together to do great things. Conversely, negative leaders who were also “great” in their own right from Stalin, Hitler and Marx right down to old Usma Bin Laden himself were able to herd their sheep into doing their best for their causes, albeit incorrect causes.

We may be down for the next two years, but we are not out.

I will take my limited platform right here to start the new Conservative movement.

I have been hearing calls by many people for Newt to step out of retirement with an eye on the White House in 2008. I second that. It’s a great first step. Now we need another great step, we need a Contract with America part II to get the message back out. This second contract needs to emphasize that which those of us located on true right stand for. I will get the ball rolling on it right here, and feel free to add your own. When we get ten of them, we will send them to the leadership of the Conservative movement, and if possible Newt himself.

1. Constitutional government;

a. The Constitution has specific rights, responsibilities and limitations for all branches of government and all three levels of government. This has been overlooked for too long.

b. We need members of all three branches that understand this and will pledge not to violate this.

2. Equal tax rates, not ones that punish success

a. The 14^th Amendment allows us Equal Protection for all; however this is never the case with the tax rates. I remember one time getting a pay raise and receiving a reduction in pay because it was just enough to bump me up into the next rate. That’s not the American way of life.

3. The Military

a. Military personnel will never be paid less than their civilian counterparts, nor will they get paid less than those who do not work (i.e. well fare recipients)

b. Military personnel will be allowed the ability to do their job. We will repeal any and all laws that prevent that

4. First Amendment

a. McCain-Feingold needs to be repealed. It is despicable that 60 days before an election we are not allowed freely assemble, and pool our resources in order to buy the biggest soap box we can afford (i.e. TV air time) in order to criticize the government. This falls flat on the face of everything our Founders stood for.

b. The religious clauses of the First Amendment do not prohibit the free exercise of religion in the public square or on public land. Rather it requires that government not take heed to a party’s religious affiliation or lack thereof when dealing with them. This means if the Catholic Church has the best program for dealing with an issue that the government is tasked for handling (i.e. The homeless), then they should get the money regardless of whether or not they are a religious entity.