Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he wants to “retake the soul” of the Republican Party. That being the case, I suggest he track down the GOP chart and compass employed before he landed in politics as a legislative aide to Senator Bob Kasten in 1992. Since then, the GOP has lost the popular vote in presidential elections five out of six times.
The Speaker should look to Republican history from days when the Party won landslides. Ronald Reagan captured 49 states and reelection in 1984 by running on principle and moral absolutes. But since 1988, one may legitimately question whether the RNC has lost its moorings and purpose for being. Karl Rove designed his so-called “Permanent Republican Majority” around Machiavelli’s formula: “Political expediency is placed above morality and the use of craft and deceit to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of the ruler.”
Wasn’t it George H.W. Bush in 1992, Senator Bob Dole in 1996, George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, Senator John McCain in 2008, and Mitt Romney in 2012 that championed of the “Big Tent” theory? Let me get this straight: They are sitting out the 2016 election this fall? Are you kidding me? Evidently the “Big Tent” principle applies only if establishment moderates: 1) define the philosophy of the GOP; and 2) control the Big Tent.
Thank God for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. When the RNC lacked a strong Chairman from 2009-2011, Karl Rove took center-stage, becoming large and in charge of the Republican Party apparatus. In 2012, the ubiquitous Mr. Rove worked himself and his PAC, American Crossroads, into a position as the official GOP counterpart, doing the work of the RNC. Except that, though Rove’s group raised and spent $390 million, all their money only elected 1.29% of their candidates. One Republican operative quipped, “Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do … I don’t know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and got nothing.”
On a side note, Evangelicals are fed-up with the doublespeak from moderate, establishment Republicans, who run as conservatives in order to be elected, but then govern as irreligious progressives. Lies unleash misery on a nation. Saying one thing to be elected but doing the opposite has a name: deceit. A republican form of government is viable only if politicians can, on the whole, be relied on to produce straightforward answers to questions and issues. Duplicity ruins the foundation—think through the conduct and administration of the lawless Barack Hussein Obama.
Mark Steyn points to the genuine problem in America, “If the culture’s liberal, if the schools are liberal, if the churches are liberal, if the hip, groovy business elite is liberal, if the guys who make the movies and the pop songs are liberal, then electing a guy with an “R” after his name isn’t going to make a lot of difference.”
So, what is the counteracting agent to address the godless secularism that is strangling America? How do we return America to the original model laid by America’s founders?
“The West has lost Christ, and that is why it is dying; that is the only reason.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Theologian and scholar Peter Leithart emailed in May:
David,
What is God doing with the GOP? Who knows? But a thought.
Step 1: Trump shakes up and dismantles the GOP, leaving a vacuum of leadership.
Step 2: David Lane recruits hundreds of committed new political leaders who start getting experience in local politics.
Step 3: 10 years on, a very different, more Christian GOP.
Might be.
Blessings
Let’s hope that Dr. Leithart is right. Why? Because fostering virtue and restraining vice is essential for the health of the Republic. America’s founders recognized that to enjoy divine blessing one must be active and walk, methodically, in certain ways. There was a reason that the Bible was positioned as the fixed point in order to judge society. It’s the reason that we must track down the chart and compass certified by the founders.
Spiritually, prayer must be reestablished in America’s churches, inasmuch as, “Prayer and tears are the weapons of heaven.” If we’re to have a shot at a reawakening, men and women who have a close relationship with God and a thorough knowledge of His Word must be brought to the public square.
Hear me carefully. No one I know believes that politicians are going to save America. No one I know believes that Wall Street is going to save America. If America is to be saved, it will be by the men and women of Issachar, who have “understanding of the times, to know what (America) ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32).
If the glory of a nation lies in its righteousness and not its gross domestic product or its military prowess, and if virtue is an indispensable component of liberty and freedom, then the only hope for America is a spiritual resurrection.
We must locate a Gideon or Rahab to stand.
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