Making the same mistake they made during the 2012 Presidential campaign, Republican leadership is still not going on the offensive against voters' dissatisfaction with the Democrats. Why? Because the Republican establishment, busy trying to retain power in the bureaucracy of big government, are fighting with all their might to oppose grassroots-inspired candidates who threaten entrenched Republicans. Their biggest political enemy, whom they have the gall to call "divisive," is their fellow Republicans!
The leaders of both parties are now wholly given over to keeping entrenched leadership in power. But opposition to this continues to increase from those who have a notion that the people, and not a Party establishment, should be the ones to choose candidates in primaries and elect candidates whom they feel will best represent them. Many of those so inclined associate themselves with the Tea Party movement.
There is no room at all, however, for a Tea Party movement in a party like the Democrats' party. Democrats are brainwashed to completely accept whatever the party line is and vote for whomever their leadership puts forward as a candidate. They operate much like a communist party with its "democratic centralism" in which the central leadership decides the party line and the party faithful dogmatically abides by it, with violators then being purged from the party.
For example, when Democrat leaders announced during the 2012 presidential campaign that there was a "War on Women" by Republicans, all Democrats began to faithfully repeat and defend the new rhetoric. Or, after they created the lie saying that requiring voters to have an ID when voting is racist, every Democrat began to repeat and defend the lie. No need for independent research or understanding of how that statement was derived, thank you. Can't let facts get in the way.
The Republican leadership has a similar "just go along with what we say" approach, but it gets tripped up by a segment of the Party that has studied the Constitution and those that have learned to independently analyze the issues and determine what is right for them as individuals, in other words, conservatives.
True conservatism goes against the group mentality that today's Democrat and Republican leaders try to corral us into
True conservatism goes against the group mentality that today's Democrat and Republican leaders try to corral us into. By definition, today's conservatives believe in independent thinking and extol the virtues of individual accomplishment and personal achievement.
An actual grassroots movement is not based on a herd mentality, where everyone blindly follows the leader. In a grassroots movement, independent thinkers come together on a body of thought that is derived by individuals through the process of logical thinking and deduction. The leaders of that movement, then, are those who can best articulate those views. It is totally contrary to the process that got Obama elected, where his teleprompter-read speeches made people feel good, and somehow that justified them believing and defending everything he said.
Conservatism, not being bound by political affiliation, can draw in Democrats as well as Republicans, as was seen in President Reagan's two landslide elections. The reason is that people have an innate desire to be free from control by others, whether it be those representing corporations dependent on government largesse or bureaucrats (elected and appointed) who think their purpose in life is to rule over us. Therefore a candidate who separates himself from both controlling forces will find allies in both parties. But he will also find himself opposed by the leadership of both parties, against which only a strong and enduring grassroots movement can succeed.
And while opportunities have abounded for the Republican Party to go on the offensive against the Democrats in this year's election campaign, the establishment Republicans instead chose to circle their wagons and defend themselves against a grassroots Republican "insurgency." We will see now, as even his fellow Democrats question the President's ability, or even desire, to lead this nation, whether Republican leadership can effectively take advantage of the disarray among Democrats to defeat them. Right now, it is up to individual candidates to do that.
Rolf Yungclas is a recently retired newspaper editor from southwest Kansas who has been speaking out on the issues of the day in newspapers and online for over 15 years
