Tough Love for Conservatives

Okay, folks. I’ve got to take a moment to say something. I need to give some of my dear conservative friends some tough love. I don’t mean to be harsh, but…

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

Now, this won’t apply to all of you, but those of you it does apply to should hopefully recognize yourselves in what I’m about to say, and that is that I’m sick to death of watching conservatives tear each other apart. You people that are doing this, and most of you know who you are, YOU are the primary reason that Main Street America can be convinced by the media that conservatives are a bunch of narrow-minded, radical extremists that aren’t worth listening to. And the reason they can be so easily convinced of that is because that’s exactly what many of you are! What’s worse is that you make the rest of us look as fringy as you are because what we believe in is so similar at first glance and you are not only shooting yourselves in the foot, but you’re hindering the entire conservative cause!

Forget ideological purity! I mean it! FORGET IT!! Do you want to know how progressives have managed to dominate political discourse? They’ve accomplshed it by making alliances with people and groups that are similar enough that they can find common cause and work together. But what do many of you do? You do the opposite! Instead of looking for common ground, you look for the differences and you use that to justify attacking the very people you should be working with!

STOP BEING STUPID!!!

I just saw a post where a well-known senator, well-known for being a ‘moderate’, or a ‘RiNO’, publicly pointed out a problem with pending legislation, in this instance taking a rather conservative position. The first comments on that post consisted of an attack on the senator for not being a reliable conservative. That may be true, but is that really the point?

Don’t get me wrong. A strong ideological foundation is critical to effective political action and promoting our values. But we have got to stop being so tightly wedded to the ideal of ideological purity that we make it impossible to work together. We have to start looking for allies amongst ourselves and working with people with whom we have common cause, even if we don’t agree on everything. Even if we don’t agree on important things! Basically, we have to grow up and stop acting like a bunch of spoiled babies if we want to be able to make our message appeal to the average Joe and help the 9 to 5 crowd wake up from their comas and join us in setting the country back on the right path.

There’s nothing wrong with Congress. Right?

First of all, I need to mention something in all fairness. Back in March of this year I became aware of Darren Ayres and his decision to challenge Rep. Bill Young for his seat in the U.S. Congress when I attended a candidate forum. Based upon what he had to say at that forum I became an instant supporter and enthusiastically spread the word about his campaign on Facebook and Twitter. By doing so, I became increasingly familiar with Darren Ayres’ positions on the issues and my support for his campaign grew even more. Recently, I was asked to do more in light of that support by giving my time and energy to the campaign and doing what I could to help Mr. Ayers by volunteering for his campaign directly. I met him and his staff at his campaign office where we talked things over and by the end of that very in-depth conversation I felt very much that it was the right thing to do; and so I accepted. I say all of this because of what I am about to say. Yes, what follows may seem self-serving, but I hope I have established enough credibility and integrity with those who know me personally for my words to be accepted on their face where appropriate.

As conservatives of the tea party movement, there are certain things to which we are unanimously opposed. We rail loudly and often about career politicians who won election to their seats years ago, who subsequently were absorbed into the political culture of Capitol Hill, and every two years have been sent back to Congress by their constituents because they’ve developed a reputation for bringing federal money back to their home districts. This is precisely the ‘status quo’ that brought about the tea party movement in the first place.

But interestingly, some of these members of Congress have an ‘R’ after their name, and some of these Republicans are considered reliable votes on issues of social importance (whether they are in actuality or not). Without exception, they’ve established a great deal of clout in Washington and are considered political institutions at home, responsible for donating many thousands of dollars to their party at the local level year in and year out, ensuring that their local base remains strong while they spend 80% of their time or more living away from the very people they are expected to represent.

But let’s pause a moment to reflect upon what it was that brought us out of our living rooms and onto the streets of Washington D.C. and all across the country in 2009. Congress, in particular, was obviously the heart of everything that had gone wrong, the ultimate source of all the out-of-control federal spending and the unbearable burden of our national debt. Well, how do we suppose that came about?

We know how. Constituents sending the same people to Congress year after year and those same people developing a knack for making sure that their district gets as many goodies from the federal government as possible is how it happened. As tea party patriots, we have yelled and screamed about the appalling fiscal irresponsibility inherent in this practice that has become all-too-common on Capitol Hill and we’re right.

So, why is it that when all of a sudden it’s our Congressman that’s asking to be sent back to Washington D.C. to send federal tax dollars back home that we think it’s suddenly different? Why is it repugnant and the cause of the bulk of our nation’s woes when some other district’s Congressman sends pork home but when our guy does it, it’s suddenly a good thing? Is this really what we mean when we say our Congressman takes good care of us? Are we actually aware of the fact that we’re essentially saying that we want all the federal money we can get, but that it’s wrong for the rest of America?

We know what this is because we see it all the time in Progressives, and if our movement is going to be successful we need to recognize it in ourselves, too. It’s called hypocrisy, and we can’t do it.

Congressman Bill Young has been sent back to Congress for 42 years after winning 21 consecutive elections because he does exactly what we hate in other politicians: he “brings federal money home” to his district. We have to stop this. We talk all the time about standing up against the status quo, of putting a stop to ‘business as usual’, of sending fiscal conservatives to Congress to get our country’s insane spending under control. But how does bringing the most federal money back home square with being fiscally conservative? It doesn’t, does it?

If we really want the runaway spending in Washington D.C. to stop, then we have to stop it. We stop it by not sending our own free-spending congressmen back to Congress. Rep. Bill Young wants to go back to Congress to continue to do what he’s always done. We have to say “no”. We have to say “no” to Bill Young and look at people like Darren Ayres who see Congress as a public service rather than a career.

There is a clear choice for Congress and it’s vital for our nation’s future to make the right choice. The people of Indiana got it right in their Republican primary when they chose Richard Mourdock over Dick Lugar, 61%-39%. That’s exactly what we need to do all across the country, and we know it.

Our Republican primary in Florida is August 14^th. Stop the insane spending by sending citizen-statesman Darren Ayres to Congress. It’s the right thing to do.