This year, there are -- or rather were – seventeen Republican candidates running for the nomination and then the Presidency. The large majority of them have impressive records, long-standing experience in the government, the military, or the private sector, although not always interlocking at the same time in the same person.
Sadly, Texas Governor Rick Perry already dropped out. He presided over a state with one of the fast economic expansions in the country’s history, more outstanding because this drive emerged despite the economic malaise of President Obama’s abortive policies, from wasted stimulus dollars, to his Environmental Protection Agency overreach, to Obamacare, and its dizzying, byzantine myriad of regulations.
Even also-ran Jim Gilmore of Virginia has a record of running a state. Now more than ever, this country needs executive skill, untrammeled leadership that will not buckle or flee in the face of challenges.
This kind of leadership does not require perfection from our next President, yet the way conservatives carry on, one would think that they were expecting the Messiah to step down onto the Mount of Olives, and to settle all wars, restore every economy, and impose everlasting peace coupled with eternal righteousness. Conservatives, we are not dealing with angels, but men; voters, conservatives or liberal, must accept the truth that no matter how solid a candidate may appear, whether in record or rhetoric, he or she is going to be flawed.
This political jockeying in 2016, much like in 2012, is a direct result of so many strong Republicans outlasting the Bush administration’s negative legacies, and standing on their own records of impressive reforms and accomplishments. Democrats have themselves to thank not just for the diminution of their ranks in Washington, but especially throughout the country, where thirty-one states welcome Republican governors, and Republicans control seventy (70!) percent of the state legislatures. Even in the Election 2012 post mortem, flailing GOP strategist/architect Karl Rove pointed out – vocally – that the Republican Party is not only not dead, but rearing up to take hold of a new reign of power.
Yet with all of these electoral victories, with legacies and pathways of conservative victories all over the country, restive Republican voters will brook no flaws, missteps, or changes in mind or position of their potential political candidates. As soon as another outsider becomes front-runner, these media, conservative as well as liberal, look for faults. Call it a politicized version of the Missing Tile Syndrome, a self-imposed psychological nuisance in which we demand perfection from our mates, our careers, and in our everyday lives. Instead of enjoying what we have and rejoicing in the widespread goodness around us – and in our candidates, elected officials, and conservative activist groups – we get obsessed with where our candidates, our prospective leaders fail.
Why has this circular firing squad of unending criticism dominated Republican Presidential primaries?
Why has this circular firing squad of unending criticism dominated Republican Presidential primaries?
First of all, the nature of pro-liberty and conservative parties does not lend itself to a collectivized appreciation of “The Greater Good.” Because individual freedom and limited force appeal to conservatives in general, many of them have no reserve about criticizing leaders and demanding representation more in line with their specific, limited interests. This kind of debate and discussion is more than welcome in the public sphere of ideas. When running campaigns to win elections, and effect change in government, such divisions can be costly and harmful to the greater cause.
What else has driven conservatives to demand (near) perfection from their peers and potential political candidates? Because so many of the elected officials whom we trusted in have not delivered on their promises. No more glaring example exists currently than the current Congress, where (now retiring) House Speaker John Boehner and beleaguered US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who now faces more calls for his resignation) refuse to fight for key principles, or introduce key legislation to dismantle Obama's regulatory nightmare of piece-meal socialism.
Even if the legislation to repeal Obamacare, stop executive amnesty, or to defund Planned Parenthood meets veto upon veto from President Obama, Republicans would prove to their supporters and the country that they are not getting along to go along, no longer submitting to a rogue President who refuses to do his job. Instead, Establishment leaning Republicans are not doing theirs.
But there is more to this frustrating political quandary than broken promises and inherent need to pursue one’s own self-interest first and foremost.
Conservative voters have gotten a little lazy in the last twenty years. Perhaps following the tax cuts and strong national foreign policy of Ronald Reagan, freedom fighters became freedom viewers. They liked that someone else had completed a good work, including the full demise of the Soviet Union and the rejuvenation of the market economy in Europe. Even in the Old World, many conservatives simply basked in the radiant accomplishments of Dame Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady who disciplined trade unions, restored respect for the once-marginalized Tories, and restored the prestige of a once-stagnant Great Britain which settled for declining global aspirations and moribund growth.
The fight for and maintenance of liberty rests on each one of us. The founding document of the United States, the Constitution, begins with the three words: “We the People.” It does not say “He the President” or “They the Congress”. The benefits and the responsibility for liberty and prosperity begin and end with us, the voter, the complainers, and finally the activists who realize they have to do something about what they do not like in their governments and their leaders. Because so many conservatives have gotten accustomed to depending on someone else to lead and wage the fight, they have unsurprisingly disparaged every new front-runner who strides for the GOP nomination.
Thomas Jefferson said: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Rather than eternally complaining about the next Presidential contender as “not good enough”, since no candidate will be perfect, let us hold ourselves accountable to demand better from our leaders, and make even the wrong people start doing the right things.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.
This year, there are -- or rather were – seventeen Republican candidates running for the nomination and then the Presidency. The large majority of them have impressive records, long-standing experience in the government, the military, or the private sector, although not always interlocking at the same time in the same person.
Sadly, Texas Governor Rick Perry already dropped out. He presided over a state with one of the fast economic expansions in the country’s history, more outstanding because this drive emerged despite the economic malaise of President Obama’s abortive policies, from wasted stimulus dollars, to his Environmental Protection Agency overreach, to Obamacare, and its dizzying, byzantine myriad of regulations.
