Education, Ideas and Process [Reader Post]

As we stand on the precipice of the capitulation of everything this country was founded upon, I wanted to take the time out to thank all of you who tried to change the course. These are the three pillars that need to be built if conservatism is to make one last victorious stand on this earth. Education, ideas and process.

There will be analysis that declares this proves the Republican Party needs a bigger tent. I could not more strongly disagree. I think we need to scrap the tent we have built on the sands of failure and move back to our roots. We need to build a new conservative fortress on the bedrock that Reagan espoused. Who wants to live in a tent? We need to show off the finery of our ideas and ideals rather than obscure and obfuscate the differences. That just makes it look like we lack the courage of our convictions. People vote more for strong leaders than they do for weak ideas.

If that means we cast aside appeasers like David Brooks, Chris Buckley, Peggy Noonan and even George Will and the rest. They are more than welcome to write about us, but they can not be permitted to write for us. How can we delineate our differences with the left and promote our strengths when McCain is basically Obama-lite? He was the candidate of the appeasers and look where that got us.

Instead we must promote people who can educate, who can explain the benefits of the republic and why the Electoral College is not just important, but vital. If we can’t get these ideas taught in the schools then we must come up with new ways to excite and educate America.

Bill Ayers and his ilk continue their terrorist activities, but now they are in the battlefield of education. It’s a war that has been going on since Wilson, and has picked up steam once the hippy generation realized they couldn’t do – so they taught. The problem McCain had is that when he finally came to the realization that he had to point out the radical nature of Obama – it made little impact because the target audience didn’t understand the danger of socialism. When history books contain mere paragraphs about Washington, Jefferson, et al – and eight pages on a convention speech by a then-unknown state senator – there can be little doubt that the educational battleground needs to be a priority.

What good is the Monroe Doctrine, if the X, Y and Z generations don’t even care who James Monroe was? McCain, Palin, and in all honesty all of us needed to pretend you were talking to children and explain what happens once communism is removed from the test tube to the real world. Hopefully it won’t take another World War or Berlin Wall to wake the people of America up. And pray to God that America’s choice of a Marxist for president won’t make us complicit in the next global tragedy.

Similarly, the coal controversy didn’t have the impact it should because the ‘greening’ of American education has led to a populace that is willing to sacrifice a ‘buggy-whip’ enterprise like coal because it has a detrimental impact on the environment. Think back to $4 gas. Now imagine a $600 electric bill after the coal market is knee-capped and supply and demand hits the natural gas market.

Many Americans have not been taught to think for themselves, to connect the dots and think beyond the basics. And from Bush I, to Dole, to Bush II, to McCain we have not had a candidate who can explain the basics. Instead, they play to the fears and wants. Mitch McConnell saved his skin by telling Kentucky voters that he should stay in office because he brought half-a-billion dollars to the Commonwealth, and is in a position to do more. Is that conservative? Or is it a bribe?

It is necessary to re-teach that greed can be good. America was built on the desire of a better life, a Manifest Destiny. Every parent wants a brighter future for their children. This desire to improve one’s life is the key difference in the American experience and the cold, grayness that pervades Euro-socialism. However, greed needs to be balanced by fear. Fear of failure cannot be mitigated by massive government bailouts. We need a fear of penalties, like Congressmen and regulators aiding and abetting the overthrow of the financial system being tarred and feathered, figuratively if not literally. That is not happening in the CYA Congress where stacking cold cash in a freezer is an executive invasion rather than a despicable act of malfeasance.

Could another candidate have expressed this better? Perhaps Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney could have, but they never had the chance. I have faith in the bedrock of Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. That’s the second thing that needs to happen for the future of conservatism, and of the American way of life. While the immediate focus of the right is the apparent success of the far left, the real concern should be a lot closer to home. We need to ask ourselves why the people who have assumed the mantle of elder statesmen for conservatism are so unable and unwilling to see the virtue of Governor Palin.

Is she a Rhodes Scholar like President Clinton? No. Does she have an MBA from Harvard like President Bush? No. She has something more important. She embodies the mix of common sense, leadership, communication skills and a strong moral backbone. That’s what our citizen-government is so sorely lacking. Does she know everything? No one does. There are always those ‘unknown unknowns.’ That’s why it is important to judge our leaders on the content of their character. It’s who she is that leads me to believe that she is the most likely of the four power-seekers to make the right decision.

Now is the time for us to stand up for what we believe and make sure that true believers are those that are acting as our apostles. We must set the stage to allow a true representation of what conservatism is. We must not have ‘neo-conservatives’ or ‘compassionate conservatives’ or ‘Rockefeller Republicans’ in a position of power. We cannot have the liberal, country club wing of the Republican Party setting up non-partisan, open primaries that water down our strengths. This shreds whatever hope the conservative wing has of ever taking flight.

Education, ideas and process. If the United States is to remain that shining beacon on a hill, we need to shore up that hill with these bulwarks or prepare for generations of living in the wilderness.