We suffer under the same bumbling leadership. Our lives, our lifeblood, our heroes, are squandered in relentless Pyrrhic battles of insignificance. And, as at Fredericksburg, we learn nothing from our failures – sending wave after wave of doomed men into the hellfire of a completely entrenched and well-organized enemy. Worse still, our own leaders are trying to destroy us.
Prior to the Civil War, Fredericksburg, a lovely Virginia town on the south bank of the Rappahannock River, is situated mid-way between D.C. and Richmond; it is the singular obstacle to the North’s attack upon the heart of the Confederacy. Now, it is mid-November of 1862. The Civil War is monotonously disastrous by this point. Lincoln has given command to one general after another and none will fight. Now, he places General Ambrose Burnside in command, a General who vows somehow to succeed where all others have failed.
Richmond is Capitol of the Confederate States of America and lies only 100 miles south of Washington. It is November 17th. The Union Army takes residence in Falmouth, Virginia, on the north bank of the Rappahannock River. General Burnside intends to cross the Rappahannock, subdue or destroy Fredericksburg, march another fifty miles, subdue the Confederate Capitol and end the war.
Burnside waits – and waits – and waits. His pontoon bridges – needed for crossing – do not arrive. Bureaucratic mismanagement delays them for a month. This permits Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander, to deploy his forces on ground of his choosing. In the coming battle he will position the bulk of his men on Marye’s Heights, looking down upon the town and the Union forces. He will organize his rifleman into lines four deep along the Sunken Road at the crest of the Heights, knowing they will be well-defended by the Stone Wall running along its south side. This will permit a near constant rate of fire – otherwise unseen with muzzle-loading rifles. The Sunken Road provides a stunning firing position - exposing only heads and shoulders of the Confederates. Burnside presumes he must drive through this position to continue his advance upon Richmond.
For three days, Burnside orders fourteen assaults upon the Confederate lines. Each assaulting division loses 50% of its men. Overall, the Union Army loses more than ten percent of its force of 120,000. The Union’s Irish Brigade comes closest to the Confederate line – mere yards. The Confederate riflemen cheer their bravery but shoot them down nonetheless.
Burnside fails to understand the fundamental paradigm shift in strategy required in an era where men are equipped with rifles instead of muskets. Muskets are wildly inaccurate. Historically, this required contending forces attack with tight groupings of men – “massed attacks.” By the time of the Civil War, however, rifles were widely available, and the “rifling” inside their barrels spun their bullets making rifles far more accurate than muskets. Consequently, “massed attacks” by this time were mass suicides. Burnside did not learn this lesson even after fourteen mass suicides at Fredericksburg.
Our Republican leaders have failed to learn similar lessons even now. They do not understand how to combat their opponents – the Left – who despite being in the minority are much better equipped and organized. Our Republican leaders do not understand how to leverage a paradigm shift (information age, Web, social media, Conservatism), or even to recognize one.
Fredericksburg is a deadly illustration of the effects of leadership that is dawdling, vainglorious, incompetent or ineffectual. But, we Conservatives do not require the genius of a Robert E. Lee to prevail. We need merely the inelegant but dogged persistence of a U.S. Grant, the General who finally won the war. But where is he?
Today’s Conservative forces, unlike those of the Union, are not so fortunate to possess sufficient men and women and materiel to allow us victory in spite of our leaders. Worse, Conservatives are doomed to failure entirely in the occasion of hostility of our leaders.
Yet, this is the ground we are given to occupy. Not only do we contend with an overwhelming opposing force, most of our generals are incompetent and the rest are fighting for the other side.
And, our opposing force, the Left, is not dissimilar to the Union. Like the Union the contemporary Left is better funded, better supplied, and better organized than we Conservatives. Unlike the Union, the Left also benefits from its control over most of the institutions in our Society. Its apparatchiks hold controlling interest in campaign financing, federal funding of Leftist programs, the vast federal bureaucracy, the entire spectrum of the judiciary, most Colleges of Education and Journalism, most Colleges in general, an entirely deluded mass media operating as a marvelous unpaid public relations firm for the Democrat Party, and apparently, so much of the entertainment industry it is necessary for Hollywood Conservatives to meet in secret.
Setting aside “our” leadership’s vociferous hostility to its Conservative base, we are also saddled with leaders who at their best are nonetheless incompetent, ineffectual, and likely corrupt.
Without good leadership we are doomed.
President Lincoln changed generalships of the Union Army numerous times before he hit upon a Grant. However, the Union was a superior force and it could survive Lincoln’s earlier poor choices. In our time, Conservatives will not survive another poor choice.
In our time, in this most dangerous time in fifty years, we are compressed beneath a leader not merely incompetent, not merely ineffectual, but also hostile to the Conservative/Tea Party Movement which empowered him in the first place. In fact, he is so hostile and treacherous he seems to be working for the opposition, and for our destruction.
General John Boehner’s betrayal (and incompetence) is manifest in almost every issue of the day: ObamaCare, Amnesty, Deficit Spending, the Fiscal Cliff, the Sequester, the Government Shutdown, Recess Appointments, (not) calling for a Federal Prosecutor to investigate Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS, or Obama’s relentless violations of the Constitution. Boehner could not better serve the opposition’s interests even were he intending to. Even General Burnside at Fredericksburg eventually understood sacrificing his own soldiers incessantly would not bring victory.
Yet, Boehner decimates numberless legions of Conservative activists, without restraint, without exerting himself to understand the paradigm shift, the true nature of the Republican Party – of Conservatism – of the Party that in 1964 nominated Barry Goldwater and pushed through the Voting Rights Act over strong Democrat Party opposition.
Now, in spite of Boehner’s shared authorship of the Contract for America in the Gingrich era, despite his membership in the “Gang of Seven,” as an alleged champion of Conservatism, Boehner labors to defeat Conservatives on every occasion. He refuses Conservative lawmakers leadership positions, disallows Conservative legislation or standing, schemes against Conservatives behind closed doors, works to destroy Conservatives in Party primary races, and undermines and derides Tea Party and Conservatives advocates at every opportunity. It is almost too much to bear, to witness. How can such a man be so ignorant or act so destructively if not intending to do so? Even now, this question remains begging.
We’re getting slaughtered in every institution and in the streets. Yet Boehner could merely cease to actively undermine the Conservative Movement in the Republican Party (and its majority). Even this would allow us a fighting chance – even were he to persist in his leadership inadequacies (tactics, strategy, PR, etc.). Instead, Boehner escalates these behaviors.
Conservatives do not possess the resources of the North or the operationalized shared brilliance of the Confederate command. It does not possess the time to await a Grant or to survive the presumption of leaders who turn against their own troops. True, Burnside blamed his army for its defeat at Fredericksburg – for one night. But in the morning he accepted the blame for the disaster (though not the lesson) and had to be physically restrained from leading another charge. Is it so much, then, to expect our leaders learn from their errors and accept responsibility for their bad decisions?
We cannot survive a General like John Boehner, especially in the breach. We cannot survive his empowerment of his fellow travelers. We cannot survive having our carcasses thrown into charge after charge, realizing no gain.
Somehow, some way, we must survive. And we must prevail. If we cannot, we are doomed to the fate of the Irish Brigade – impressive in our bravery, shot down nonetheless.
