The dangers of political equivocation

By Chris Adamo

Among the most insidious of ruses perpetrated on the American people is the notion that while ideas on the political left and right are starkly different, all are equally valid from one perspective or another. All too often, "Establishment" Republicans in Washington who have accepted such thinking are primarily focused on "reaching across the aisle" and promoting "bipartisanship" rather than digging in their heels and contending for the conservative ideals for which their party ostensibly stands. And in the process, liberalism is advanced and the nation suffers.

Of course this scenario plays well into the hands of the liberal Democrats, whose agenda has predominated with abhorrent consistency, regardless of which party is in power. It was no random coincidence that John McCain's onerous campaign finance "reform" legislation and the onset of socialized prescription drugs known as "Medicare Part D" were implemented on the watch of George W. Bush, a Republican president, with both houses of Congress held by Republican majorities.

These days, it is taboo among career politicians on both sides of the aisle to even suggest that some politicians and their agendas are worthwhile, while the motives and intentions of others are not. And in typical fashion, even in the midst of several burgeoning scandals, few on the right are willing to properly characterize the methods and goals of the Obama Administration. Far from being a subtle deviation from the nation's prior course, they represent a concerted effort to eradicate the Great America of the past two and a half centuries, and reinvent it as a statist monstrosity where the "pursuit of happiness" is supplanted by mere subsistence on terms dictated by the government.

But rather than sounding a clarion call that an all-out assault on the nation is underway, the attempt is made to mollify the American people with assurances that although Barack Obama leans in the direction of bigger government, his ultimate concern is the wellbeing of the nation. In a June 7 fundraising speech in Palo Alto California, he echoed this platitude, mustering as much sincerity as possible and assuring the audience that he and his cohorts "Don't want to tax all businesses out of business."

Over time however, the pattern has become too purposeful to be a matter of chance, and its noxious effects on the national character too consistent and unmistakable to be the result of sheer bad luck. This government is at odds with the America we knew and loved, and is daily setting the stage for its destruction. Forsaking its once glorious founding principles, the nation's current direction is being forcibly changed by means that all too often exceed constitutional boundaries. And this degenerating course will get worse for as long as the American people allow it to do so.

The outrage of a $17 trillion dollar national debt, a federal leviathan cloaked in fraud that relentlessly grows itself at the expense of the freedoms and prosperity of the people, and the continually encroaching specter of its Orwellian tactics which seek to suppress all opposition, clearly portends a monumental change in the fundamental character of America. And only by erasing any recollection of what the nation once was can such a bleak transformation be implemented. It is essential to the left that the American people be systematically divorced from their roots and heritage. Otherwise, the yearning for the former ways and limitless opportunities that were once accessible to an industrious people might overpower the empty promises of socialist utopia.

It is crucial at this time for those on the right to understand where the real battle lines are drawn. Although the Democrat Party and liberalism are joined at the hip, it does not follow that the conservative movement enjoys a corresponding relationship with the Republicans. Admittedly, it is a favorite tactic of liberals to make such a presumption, and then project the insipid posturing of GOP "moderates" onto conservatism in general. Nevertheless, the mere presence of an "R" by the name of an office holder does not a conservative make.

In the ongoing debate over amnesty for possibly twenty million illegal aliens, the wholesale collaboration of Senator Marco Rubio (R.-FL) has been touted by liberals on Capitol Hill, and in the media, as "proof" that conservatives are in agreement with the likes of Chuck Schumer (D.-NY). Rubio has descended to the point of accepting Democrat opposition to securing the border until after amnesty is implemented, which means that border security has been completely discarded. Once thought to be a rising star in the GOP, Rubio so completely betrayed the conservative base that, many on the right would find it impossible to ever again support him. At best, he might follow in the shoes of John McCain or Bob Dole, and rise quickly as the Republican Party's "presumptive" nominee for the presidency, only to be trounced in the general election.

This situation is another sad example of a potential leader on the right who has been enticed into believing that he could establish common ground with a political movement that has, as its end goal, the cultural obliteration of the nation. Marco Rubio is certainly not the first conservative-leaning Republican Senator to accept the notion that his Democrat opponents are sincerely motivated towards the best interests of the country. However, his lapse into this mire has been among the most grimly spectacular.

Just as Marco Rubio's allegiances are increasingly jaded, so are the actual motives and convictions of others claiming to be on the "right," but who regularly recoil and retreat from direct confrontation with the liberal political apparatus. Americans are fully cognizant of the menacing presence of the Internal Revenue Service, and of the looming threat of government agencies meddling with their most private information. And in light of the recent scandals, they will not accept empty assurances from either side of the aisle that nothing bad actually occurred.

Nor will reasonable people on Main Street interpret assertions of Barack Obama's "innocence" in the present cavalcade of scandal as anything but an unwillingness of fellow career politicians to hold him accountable. This is the man who regularly sat in the pews under the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright for twenty two years, and yet claims never to have heard any of the venomous anti-Americanism which Wright incessantly spews. Whether his professed disassociation from all of the outrages coming to light in D.C. is excused by his accomplices on the left as mere naive ineptitude, or as detachment from his responsibilities, as asserted by some on the right, his past governing practices demonstrate a clear and purposeful intention to overcome annoying obstacles, including the Constitution, by any means necessary.

In certain ways, he has done the conservative movement an enormous favor by delineating between left and right with such stark clarity that the people can no longer be lulled into believing that "me too" Republicans have their interests at heart. From this time forward, the only Republicans whose voices will resonate in the Heartland are those willing to brave the firestorm of the D.C. establishment while courageously maintaining their conservative values.

© Chris Adamo