What Kind of Patriot Are You?

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
“The American Crisis” by Thomas Paine
– December 23, 1776

So, what do we do now?

Well, I think we have to go back to the beginning. Start from scratch. We should go back and take in the sermons given during the first Great Awakening that led to the American Revolution. Re-read Thomas Paine. We are at the brink of a crisis in this country every bit as dire as the American revolutionary cause was in during that cold December of 1776 when the war effort was in shambles and the American people were filled with despair.

We need to stop. We need to recognize what happened. We need to understand what it means. And then we need to focus on how to learn from it and soldier on with stout hearts and lessons learned. We need to remember that no one who labors in God’s cause labors in vain. We need to address this turn of events with complete sobriety of thought, willing to look at ourselves critically, with a willingness to see this cause and our place in it differently.

But above all, we cannot abandon what is right. God raised up a righteous people in this land and when His righteous people followed His prompting and proclaimed liberty throughout this country He did not fail us. Through unimaginable trials and brutal hardships, He led our forefathers through to blissful freedom, a freedom that was all the more precious for the price paid to win it! Heaven DOES know how to fix a proper price upon its goods and the whole foundation of modern conservatism is that what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly. Is that not what we say is the core flaw in the welfare programs? It applies to us, as well!

It pains me to say this, but on the whole we have not done what is necessary to redeem this great nation to its former glory. And why? Because it’s hard? Because it takes time? Because it costs money? Is it that it requires too much dedication? Is it too uncomfortable to talk to friends and neighbors?

In my county alone there are about 1,750 members of about four tea party groups, maybe even more. And you want to know about how many show up? Maybe 60 on a good day. If it’s to work an event, then that falls to about 10, but oh, if there’s free food on offer, well then you can get close to 300! And THESE are the patriots? THESE are the people upon which the future of our republic rests? If this is so, we may as well give up now. I mean it. If this is the best we can manage, we’re done and the progressives have won.

So, in these next four years as conditions grow increasingly dark and we begin to really feel the pain of these progressive policies take as they hold and squeeze the lifeblood of liberty from our daily existence; when we have to work even harder and have less time available to us to do what needs doing and we wish we could turn back the clock to 2011 and 2012 and beg the Almighty for a chance to do it all again, begging that this time we’ll do what it takes to avoid the agony of tyranny as it holds us frozen in its icy grip, the task before us will be immense and the price we’ll have to pay will be painfully high.

But pay it we must, for there is no other course but servitude.

These ARE the times that try men’s souls. Liberty, again, is at a crossroads and it is for certain that we have esteemed it too lightly. We have been sunshine patriots, most of us. I know I could have done more. I’ve not given enough. I’ve not worked hard enough. I’ve not done everything I could do; and I know I am far from alone. So many of us could have done more and should have.

It’s time for us, the sunshine patriots, to wake up to the real cost of liberty.  We must soberly accept that this will require sacrifice – hard, bitter sacrifice. By starting sooner we can make our burden a little lighter, but that is not the way of human nature. It is our nature, instead, to endure injuries to our freedom and liberty for as long as we can bear them, only giving it our all when the oppression in our lives can no longer be endured. But in the end we must struggle and work for this cause, rendering faithful service to God and to country, to toil in the righteous effort to preserve the sweet gift of liberty. It is either this or accept the chains of slavery.

After taking stock of myself I feel admonished that I did not do more and I have resolved to live or die as a free man. I will no longer allow myself to fall short of what I can do. If I have money, I will give it. Every moment of time I have, I will use it. I will do everything I am capable of doing, not just what’s convenient. Not just what’s comfortable. Not just doing what comes at an easy price. I will work hard, doing things I don’t like, sacrificing time I would rather spend in leisure. The burden that has fallen upon our generation is every bit as noble and as critical to our survival as a free people as the burden our grandparents had to bear during WWII and our forefathers had to bear during the American Revolution, and we simply can’t afford to just do a little or just what’s convenient; and I will not be a sunshine patriot anymore.

What about all of you? Where do you stand? What are you willing to do?

What kind of patriot are you?

Is it time for a new party?

Is it time for a new ‘conservative’ party?

Herman Cain recently said that he thinks so, and I find it hard to argue with him. Herman is right when he alleges that “neither party is going to fix the problems we face” and agreed with American Family Radio host Bryan Fischer that conservatives are growing tired of being ignored by Republican Party leadership and that many conservatives believe that the GOP no longer speaks for them. I’ve felt that way for a very long time and my conviction has only grown stronger over the past few years.

2012 Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain

The need for a third party isn’t based on the damage the progressives in government, the Democratic Party, and the media managed to do to the Republican ‘brand’, so to speak. The issue I have with the Republican Party, and have always had with the Republican Party, is that the leadership of the party is so ensconced within the ‘inside the beltway’ political culture that when it comes to leading and governing based upon ideology and principle they suddenly find themselves at odds with their own professional and financial interests and nothing ever changes.

Most likely, close to 80% of the rank-and-file of the Republican Party are ideological conservatives, but when the rank-and-file try to hold the leadership to account for leading and governing by that standard, we’re told that it’s just not possible to lead or govern that way, that in order to lead and govern compromises and sacrifices must be made, that accommodations and appeasement are the pragmatic and responsible way forward. Furthermore, we’re told that to insist upon conservative ideals in matters of legislation and policy is naïve and foolish; that government ‘just doesn’t work that way.’

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are perfect examples of this flawed thinking, but they hold the reins of power in the party very tightly and they have placed people in support roles who agree with them, creating an entrenched power base that refuses to budge or be swayed. As long as that remains the case, the Republican Party will continue to lose national races, and this GOP leadership has gone to great lengths to see to its perpetuation.

Tea party folks have been trying to make headway against this ever since we got involved with the party, but it just won’t crack. And while we have made significant strides in spreading the message that conservatism and returning to the constitutional limits placed upon the federal government are key principles in finding the best answers to our nation’s present problems, no amount of public opinion, popular support, or grassroots political action has done a thing to create the slightest dent in this cabal who are determined to go against the rank-and-file’s wishes and march the GOP off into the political wilderness.

The leadership of the party are even now trying to blame Mitt Romney’s loss on the tea party movement and using that as an excuse to discredit ideological conservatives and eliminate us as a threat to their precious political power. As a result, the GOP is now about to move even farther to the political left which will lead to their complete undoing.

I really don’t think the answer is to keep trying to bail out the rapidly sinking ship that the Republican Party has allowed itself to become. I agree with Herman Cain, and I started thinking along the lines of a third party from the time it became clear that the GOP leadership were doing their best to force their choice for the nomination upon the rest of the party. Now that we’ve all done our best with what we were handed by the Republican leadership to try to stop the progressive agenda I think it’s time to form a genuinely conservative political party; a party independent of that nest of politicos. A party that can verbally articulate conservative solutions comprised of people who know conservatism because they live and breathe conservatism every day of their lives rather than be misled again and again by GOP political hacks who’ve learned how and when to deliver focus group-tested conservative-sounding sound bites whenever election season rolls around.

In politics, ideology is everything – but timing is critical. The time may never be more ripe than now to mount a conservative challenge to the GOP. If all the genuine conservatives in the Republican Party were to leave the party for a better alternative, the GOP leadership would find itself in command of an empty, sinking boat. Let them own their message of accommodation and appeasement and all it has gotten them – and us. Conservatism deserves better spokesmen than a bunch of witless sycophants inside the Washington Beltway trying to speak conservatism as a second language. We need a party whose leadership won’t garble the message or drop the ball when principled push comes to ideological shove.

Conservatism needs a new home and America needs a conservative party that will speak with a genuine voice and act with conviction and determination, leading by principled example. I believe the time is now for those whose reverence is for Washington, Madison, and Jefferson; for Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln; for Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan, for those who have seen to the birth and perpetuation of liberty as mankind’s greatest gift and its ultimate material salvation, to form a party reflective of those ideals led by principled men and women who are ready to take up the torch and be an effective force in government. We need a new ‘conservative’ party.