Bryan Fischer
The GOP's civil war being fought on three hills
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
If Republicans do not want to wind up on the ash heap of history, entombed with the fond memories of Ronald Reagan, they must take unapologetic and unambiguous positions on three issues: immigration, the debt ceiling, and marriage.
If they cave on immigration, as Charles Krauthammer and Sean Hannity want them to do, they are finished as a political force in America. There will be no discernible difference between them and the Democrats, and genuine conservatives will desert the party in droves, either for a third party or to disengage altogether. Regardless of which option they choose, they will be lost to the GOP forever.
And the really sophomoric truth is that caving on immigration won't help them win Hispanic votes anyway. As Heather MacDonald has pointed out, Hispanics vote Democrat because of welfare, not immigration. And Republicans will never be able to outpander Democrats when it comes to promising folks goodies that they first must take from others.
By the way, as far as the "compassion" argument is concerned, sound immigration policy is the essence of compassion. Compassion, for instance, is a secure southern border, which keeps drugs, violence, criminals and terrorists out of our land. That benefits everyone. Hispanic families don't want drug cartels and jihadists in their neighborhoods any more than anybody else does.
To provide one more example, compassion is assuring legal immigrants that their jobs will not be lost to those who have no right even to be here.
We don't, on immigration, have to choose between justice and compassion. They are two sides of the very same coin. The way government shows compassion is through justice, making sure that everyone's right to life, liberty and property is protected, that everyone is equal under the law and that no one is rewarded for breaking the law.
Many legal immigrants left their homelands because of the absence of the rule of law, the breakdown of the society around them, and corruption in government that made free enterprise and economic prosperity impossible. If we have any compassion at all for these legal immigrants, we will want to ensure that America remains the stable, just culture that drew them here in the first place.
If Republicans cave on the debt ceiling, and add another $2.4 trillion to our already crushing debt, as Harry Reid wants to do and as they themselves did a scant 15 months ago, there will be no discernible difference between them and the Democrats and again, the faithful will leave en masse. Why, they will ask, should I support the Republican Party when it will not defend my values and will not even defend the values it claims to stand for in its own platform?
And if they cave on same-sex marriage, as Michael Barone and other elites want them to do, the pro-family base of the party will scatter to the wind. If they don't, can't or won't articulate a full-throated defense of natural marriage as the cornerstone of American society, why would pro-family Americans in general and evangelicals in particular support them with their time, dollars or votes?
In other words, if the GOP is even to have a political future in America, it must say no to amnesty, no to an increase in the debt ceiling, and an emphatic no to gay marriage. If they don't have the cervical fortitude to stand for the rule of law, fiscal restraint, and man-woman marriage as the building block of all civilization, of what use are they to values-driven Americans? None that I can see.
And yet panic-stricken Republicans from Krauthammer to Hannity are pushing for full-fledged capitulation within days of their electoral defeat. There hasn't been such a rush to surrender since the French dropped to their knees before the Nazis in 1940.
It's time for the GOP to start listening to its base and its conscience and stop listening to the Washington Post and the rest of the meanstream media.
The bottom line: either conservatives will take the wheel of the Republican party bus from the likes of Karl Rove, or the bus will be driven into a ditch so deep that you couldn't haul it out of there with a dozer and a titanium chain.
The Republican party is indeed locked in a civil war. The three hills over which they are fighting are amnesty, the debt ceiling and family values. Whoever captures the flag on those three hills will determine the future of the Republican party. And since the Republican party is the only party even claiming to stand for the values that made America great, whoever captures the flag on those three hills will determine whether or not America itself even has a future.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
November 14, 2012
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
If Republicans do not want to wind up on the ash heap of history, entombed with the fond memories of Ronald Reagan, they must take unapologetic and unambiguous positions on three issues: immigration, the debt ceiling, and marriage.
If they cave on immigration, as Charles Krauthammer and Sean Hannity want them to do, they are finished as a political force in America. There will be no discernible difference between them and the Democrats, and genuine conservatives will desert the party in droves, either for a third party or to disengage altogether. Regardless of which option they choose, they will be lost to the GOP forever.
And the really sophomoric truth is that caving on immigration won't help them win Hispanic votes anyway. As Heather MacDonald has pointed out, Hispanics vote Democrat because of welfare, not immigration. And Republicans will never be able to outpander Democrats when it comes to promising folks goodies that they first must take from others.
By the way, as far as the "compassion" argument is concerned, sound immigration policy is the essence of compassion. Compassion, for instance, is a secure southern border, which keeps drugs, violence, criminals and terrorists out of our land. That benefits everyone. Hispanic families don't want drug cartels and jihadists in their neighborhoods any more than anybody else does.
To provide one more example, compassion is assuring legal immigrants that their jobs will not be lost to those who have no right even to be here.
We don't, on immigration, have to choose between justice and compassion. They are two sides of the very same coin. The way government shows compassion is through justice, making sure that everyone's right to life, liberty and property is protected, that everyone is equal under the law and that no one is rewarded for breaking the law.
Many legal immigrants left their homelands because of the absence of the rule of law, the breakdown of the society around them, and corruption in government that made free enterprise and economic prosperity impossible. If we have any compassion at all for these legal immigrants, we will want to ensure that America remains the stable, just culture that drew them here in the first place.
If Republicans cave on the debt ceiling, and add another $2.4 trillion to our already crushing debt, as Harry Reid wants to do and as they themselves did a scant 15 months ago, there will be no discernible difference between them and the Democrats and again, the faithful will leave en masse. Why, they will ask, should I support the Republican Party when it will not defend my values and will not even defend the values it claims to stand for in its own platform?
And if they cave on same-sex marriage, as Michael Barone and other elites want them to do, the pro-family base of the party will scatter to the wind. If they don't, can't or won't articulate a full-throated defense of natural marriage as the cornerstone of American society, why would pro-family Americans in general and evangelicals in particular support them with their time, dollars or votes?
In other words, if the GOP is even to have a political future in America, it must say no to amnesty, no to an increase in the debt ceiling, and an emphatic no to gay marriage. If they don't have the cervical fortitude to stand for the rule of law, fiscal restraint, and man-woman marriage as the building block of all civilization, of what use are they to values-driven Americans? None that I can see.
And yet panic-stricken Republicans from Krauthammer to Hannity are pushing for full-fledged capitulation within days of their electoral defeat. There hasn't been such a rush to surrender since the French dropped to their knees before the Nazis in 1940.
It's time for the GOP to start listening to its base and its conscience and stop listening to the Washington Post and the rest of the meanstream media.
The bottom line: either conservatives will take the wheel of the Republican party bus from the likes of Karl Rove, or the bus will be driven into a ditch so deep that you couldn't haul it out of there with a dozer and a titanium chain.
The Republican party is indeed locked in a civil war. The three hills over which they are fighting are amnesty, the debt ceiling and family values. Whoever captures the flag on those three hills will determine the future of the Republican party. And since the Republican party is the only party even claiming to stand for the values that made America great, whoever captures the flag on those three hills will determine whether or not America itself even has a future.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
