Gabriel Garnica
Note to GOP and Catholic Church
Cowardice, betrayal, and appeasement of core ideals = oblivion
By Gabriel Garnica
As an educator for over two decades, I can attest to the wisdom that the teacher who tries to appease her students will end up under the desk fending off spitballs. Scores of strong, successful leaders remind us that boldly standing up for one's core principles, refusing to appease detractors and confidently believing in the truth and validity of one's beliefs is worth much more than kissing everyone's fanny like some desperate wimp looking for a friend, date or simply the time of day.
Coming Split in GOP?
History tells us that conservatives only lose when they forget how to be conservatives, or become too afraid to continue being conservatives. Witness the majesty of the Reagan years and the enthusiasm for the Contract with America. That is the bitter irony of the conservative-liberal battles for votes. America is, at its core, a conservative country with liberal fringes just waiting for a decent excuse to vote conservative. The liberal establishment, media and entertainment industry will have us believe just the opposite. Namely, that America is, at its core, a liberal society with radical conservative fringes just waiting to hijack the nation. Lest we actually begin believing these hucksters, let us recall that liberals in Hollywood and national newsrooms have a particular penchant for fantasy.
So pervasive is America's conservative nature that liberals pathetically parlayed the present perfect storm into a single-digit White House win and less than the anticipated legislative seats. Think about it; the Democrats used the ingredients of a very unpopular Republican president, an economic disaster, a controversial war and a messiah/cult candidate to make a watered-down broth of a victory. This is like a seven-footer defeating a dwarf in one-on-one basketball by one point and proceeding to trash talk while an adoring media fawns in adulation. If that does not make your lunch take an encore nothing will.
If it is actually more difficult for conservatives to lose than for them to win, how did they manage to sink this far over the past two years? Simply put, they are experiencing an internal civil war of sorts. During the Contract with America and especially the Reagan eras, the Republican bus was firmly in the hands of shrewd, passionate and dedicated core conservatives. At the present, however, that vehicle is in the trembling, cowardly, appeasing and pathetic hands of moderate Republicans who sound more like conservative liberals than anything else. Just look at losers like Chris Shays try to explain how the GOP needs to appease even more to win, or John McCain's bizarre interpretation of a political fight as a frown beginning with "my friends..." Somewhere along the line, some fool bought the notion that conservative victory in the polls can only be found by apologizing for core beliefs, letting the Left frame appropriate and inappropriate and generally acting like a bull missing some pretty important body parts.
The most ironic part of this situation is that the conservative who has shown the most cajones in recent memory is a woman-Sarah Palin. That woman can fight for her beliefs, and her stump demeanor would make Teddy Roosevelt proud. The recent meeting of conservative leaders to map out a response to Obama and a future for their beliefs, regardless of whether or not the Republican Party follows http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=38961 , is a telling sign indeed.
Unless forces within the Republican Party re-direct their party back toward the kind of true conservatism that brought them past glory, it may be a long drought for the GOP in major elections. I suspect that a band of appeasing Republicans combined with liberal moles posing as Republicans will threaten the very viability of the GOP itself. After all, liberals play the best liberals and conservatives play the best conservatives. Moderate, appeasing and pathetically apologetic Republicans make pathetic conservatives, pathetic liberals and pathetic pretty-much-everything-else. True conservatives, by nature, will cut the dead wood from their ranks, break away from the diluted frauds pretending to fill those ranks, and swim toward survival of their beliefs, values and issues.
The only hope for America's conservative movement is to either drag the losing Republican carcass back to its fold or push it away, forming its own independent party. Unless moderate and appeasing Republicans realize that their approach is a prescription for snatching defeat from the hands of victory, they are more a part of the problem than of the answer.
Republican leadership has allowed internal sects to dictate a disastrous, pathetic and wimpy path seen more as a betrayal by true conservatives than any practical survival tactic. This path is characterized by the cowardly and appeasing surrender of core conservative principles out of some pitiful and feeble desperation for acceptance and praise from a despicable media. Rather than lead to victory and unity, however, this sad surrender has been a prescription for utter and humiliating defeat and exodus from the ranks.
A side with such a glorious past, such powerful and profound values, such practical and logical arguments and such a grounding in truth is losing to scavengers and vultures because it has betrayed and forgotten to remain loyal and steadfast to its true self. I am referring to the Republican Party, but I might as well be speaking of the present Catholic Church as well.
Cowards with Crosses
Just as the American Republican Party is taking in water because of a misguided belief that surrender is the right path to ultimate victory, so too the American Catholic Church is taking in water for the same reason.
Everywhere one turns, liberal Catholics are pulling and pushing the Catholic Church away from its core beliefs and doctrines and toward a socialist, Marxist, New Age, feminist, secular liberalism with a cheap coat of paint called "progressivism" covering the shallow, hallow, arrogant and blatant betrayal of everything this Church stands for.
Just as pathetic conservatives dance to liberal tunes and follow liberal dictates, so too pathetic Catholics dance to those very same tunes and follow those very same dictates. The arrogant rationalism of so-called "enlightened" conservatives mirrors the same ignorant arrogance of "enlightened" Catholics who wink at violations of the very same institution they defame by their mere presence.
From their responses to political debates and issues, one could safely posit that most Catholic Bishops are more Democrat than Republican, more likely to pay lip service to core conservative issues than open their lips to serve the people entrusted to their care... False conservatives and false Catholics both pretend to more accurately represent their side, but pretense is thin air in the face of truth.
Just as the conservative delusion that appeasing foes is the path to victory has borne little fruit, so too Catholic leadership cowardice and appeasement of key issues has only led to more division and exodus from the Church. If Catholic leaders had an ounce of guts and a grain of loyalty to their faith, they would speak out as one against pro-abortion politicians, excommunicate pro-abortion leaders who pretend to be Catholic and demand stricter adherence to their doctrine in other areas as well. Instead, we have so-called Catholic institutions of higher learning displaying very liberal beliefs inherently contrary to Catholic teaching.
Ironically, false conservatives and false Catholics have a significant influence on each other, for both tend to follow liberal positions in the name of social justice.
A mere look at the vast numbers of Catholics who recently voted for Osama is enough to prove that false conservatives need false Catholics to destroy conservatism and Catholicism.
Conclusion
The terms Cafeteria or Buffet Catholic are popular descriptions of Catholics who delude themselves into thinking that one can pick and choose what moral precepts to follow and still remain faithful to the very faith they betray on a daily basis.
Likewise, Cafeteria or Buffet conservatives would be those who delude themselves into thinking that liberals actually welcome them into their ranks more than merely use them like the latest useful idiots.
In both cases, it would be better to remove the dead lumber and move on than waste more time trying to make liars and fools into sincere and wise proponents when such a stance is more in their lips than in their hearts and minds.
If true conservatism and true Catholicism are to survive, they must each reject their diluted and deluded brethren and embrace core beliefs before it is too late for each.
© Gabriel Garnica
November 8, 2008
As an educator for over two decades, I can attest to the wisdom that the teacher who tries to appease her students will end up under the desk fending off spitballs. Scores of strong, successful leaders remind us that boldly standing up for one's core principles, refusing to appease detractors and confidently believing in the truth and validity of one's beliefs is worth much more than kissing everyone's fanny like some desperate wimp looking for a friend, date or simply the time of day.
Coming Split in GOP?
History tells us that conservatives only lose when they forget how to be conservatives, or become too afraid to continue being conservatives. Witness the majesty of the Reagan years and the enthusiasm for the Contract with America. That is the bitter irony of the conservative-liberal battles for votes. America is, at its core, a conservative country with liberal fringes just waiting for a decent excuse to vote conservative. The liberal establishment, media and entertainment industry will have us believe just the opposite. Namely, that America is, at its core, a liberal society with radical conservative fringes just waiting to hijack the nation. Lest we actually begin believing these hucksters, let us recall that liberals in Hollywood and national newsrooms have a particular penchant for fantasy.
So pervasive is America's conservative nature that liberals pathetically parlayed the present perfect storm into a single-digit White House win and less than the anticipated legislative seats. Think about it; the Democrats used the ingredients of a very unpopular Republican president, an economic disaster, a controversial war and a messiah/cult candidate to make a watered-down broth of a victory. This is like a seven-footer defeating a dwarf in one-on-one basketball by one point and proceeding to trash talk while an adoring media fawns in adulation. If that does not make your lunch take an encore nothing will.
If it is actually more difficult for conservatives to lose than for them to win, how did they manage to sink this far over the past two years? Simply put, they are experiencing an internal civil war of sorts. During the Contract with America and especially the Reagan eras, the Republican bus was firmly in the hands of shrewd, passionate and dedicated core conservatives. At the present, however, that vehicle is in the trembling, cowardly, appeasing and pathetic hands of moderate Republicans who sound more like conservative liberals than anything else. Just look at losers like Chris Shays try to explain how the GOP needs to appease even more to win, or John McCain's bizarre interpretation of a political fight as a frown beginning with "my friends..." Somewhere along the line, some fool bought the notion that conservative victory in the polls can only be found by apologizing for core beliefs, letting the Left frame appropriate and inappropriate and generally acting like a bull missing some pretty important body parts.
The most ironic part of this situation is that the conservative who has shown the most cajones in recent memory is a woman-Sarah Palin. That woman can fight for her beliefs, and her stump demeanor would make Teddy Roosevelt proud. The recent meeting of conservative leaders to map out a response to Obama and a future for their beliefs, regardless of whether or not the Republican Party follows http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=38961 , is a telling sign indeed.
Unless forces within the Republican Party re-direct their party back toward the kind of true conservatism that brought them past glory, it may be a long drought for the GOP in major elections. I suspect that a band of appeasing Republicans combined with liberal moles posing as Republicans will threaten the very viability of the GOP itself. After all, liberals play the best liberals and conservatives play the best conservatives. Moderate, appeasing and pathetically apologetic Republicans make pathetic conservatives, pathetic liberals and pathetic pretty-much-everything-else. True conservatives, by nature, will cut the dead wood from their ranks, break away from the diluted frauds pretending to fill those ranks, and swim toward survival of their beliefs, values and issues.
The only hope for America's conservative movement is to either drag the losing Republican carcass back to its fold or push it away, forming its own independent party. Unless moderate and appeasing Republicans realize that their approach is a prescription for snatching defeat from the hands of victory, they are more a part of the problem than of the answer.
Republican leadership has allowed internal sects to dictate a disastrous, pathetic and wimpy path seen more as a betrayal by true conservatives than any practical survival tactic. This path is characterized by the cowardly and appeasing surrender of core conservative principles out of some pitiful and feeble desperation for acceptance and praise from a despicable media. Rather than lead to victory and unity, however, this sad surrender has been a prescription for utter and humiliating defeat and exodus from the ranks.
A side with such a glorious past, such powerful and profound values, such practical and logical arguments and such a grounding in truth is losing to scavengers and vultures because it has betrayed and forgotten to remain loyal and steadfast to its true self. I am referring to the Republican Party, but I might as well be speaking of the present Catholic Church as well.
Cowards with Crosses
Just as the American Republican Party is taking in water because of a misguided belief that surrender is the right path to ultimate victory, so too the American Catholic Church is taking in water for the same reason.
Everywhere one turns, liberal Catholics are pulling and pushing the Catholic Church away from its core beliefs and doctrines and toward a socialist, Marxist, New Age, feminist, secular liberalism with a cheap coat of paint called "progressivism" covering the shallow, hallow, arrogant and blatant betrayal of everything this Church stands for.
Just as pathetic conservatives dance to liberal tunes and follow liberal dictates, so too pathetic Catholics dance to those very same tunes and follow those very same dictates. The arrogant rationalism of so-called "enlightened" conservatives mirrors the same ignorant arrogance of "enlightened" Catholics who wink at violations of the very same institution they defame by their mere presence.
From their responses to political debates and issues, one could safely posit that most Catholic Bishops are more Democrat than Republican, more likely to pay lip service to core conservative issues than open their lips to serve the people entrusted to their care... False conservatives and false Catholics both pretend to more accurately represent their side, but pretense is thin air in the face of truth.
Just as the conservative delusion that appeasing foes is the path to victory has borne little fruit, so too Catholic leadership cowardice and appeasement of key issues has only led to more division and exodus from the Church. If Catholic leaders had an ounce of guts and a grain of loyalty to their faith, they would speak out as one against pro-abortion politicians, excommunicate pro-abortion leaders who pretend to be Catholic and demand stricter adherence to their doctrine in other areas as well. Instead, we have so-called Catholic institutions of higher learning displaying very liberal beliefs inherently contrary to Catholic teaching.
Ironically, false conservatives and false Catholics have a significant influence on each other, for both tend to follow liberal positions in the name of social justice.
A mere look at the vast numbers of Catholics who recently voted for Osama is enough to prove that false conservatives need false Catholics to destroy conservatism and Catholicism.
Conclusion
The terms Cafeteria or Buffet Catholic are popular descriptions of Catholics who delude themselves into thinking that one can pick and choose what moral precepts to follow and still remain faithful to the very faith they betray on a daily basis.
Likewise, Cafeteria or Buffet conservatives would be those who delude themselves into thinking that liberals actually welcome them into their ranks more than merely use them like the latest useful idiots.
In both cases, it would be better to remove the dead lumber and move on than waste more time trying to make liars and fools into sincere and wise proponents when such a stance is more in their lips than in their hearts and minds.
If true conservatism and true Catholicism are to survive, they must each reject their diluted and deluded brethren and embrace core beliefs before it is too late for each.
© Gabriel Garnica
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