These words by DJH:
“Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”
-Abraham Lincoln (April 11, 1865)
Principles are an important thing in politics. They lead someone to vote in certain ways, or to not vote in others. They lead someone down paths that are best suited to them, and often with great rewards.
When I think of my guiding principles, I always think of this line from the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
I must always support life, must always support liberty, and must always support allowing the pursuit of happiness without government interference at every stop. But when I look at the guiding principles of the Right, I don’t see any. When it comes down to it, the most basic principle (limited government intervention in the fiscal world) isn’t even a real principle for the whole Right anymore.
In the 2016 election, the phrase “Vote your principles” became very common. It was used by NeverTrump mostly, but it did raise some questions in my mind. If we are supposed to vote our principles – for what are we supposed to vote?
This is the problem with the Right today. We don’t have guiding principles.
In the 2016 election, people (myself included) got angry that a pro-Single Payer Democrat won the GOP nomination. “He isn’t a Conservative!” was a phrase commonly heard (one I used a lot as well). But now that I think about it, I have to ask- why isn’t he? Why isn’t he a Conservative?
In 2012, people passed Mitt Romney off as a Conservative. You know- the guy who basically made the Obamacare BETA. In 2008, people passed John McCain off as a Conservative. I don’t think I need to go far on that one. John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, John Kasich. All of them are passed off by many as “Conservatives.” So when we run into the idea of Trump as a Conservative – is it really that far off? He’s about as Conservative as John Kasich.
Our guiding principles aren’t there as a movement. And when people try to instill some, they’re called purists. When Tomi Lahren and Milo Yiannapolous came out in support of abortion, we tried saying no. But as a movement, we don’t have much of a say in that. When you open the Conservative movement to be a “Big Tent” you’re going to get a lot of people. When you get people who don’t follow the “principles of Conservatism,” you can’t really get mad at it. That’s what a big tent is supposed to do.
So when a guy with few Conservative views came in, what did we expect would happen in a big tent environment?
The Conservative movement lacks these guiding principles- and if it continues to lack them, we will only see more and more Trumps, Romneys, and McCains. People who use the term Conservative to benefit themselves- but don’t have actual Conservative policies. And because there isn’t a guiding principle, they can easily come in as the Conservative choice.
When I think of the Right, the guiding principles to ME should be:
– Limit the government, making it nothing more than a minor disturbance on the American population
– Preserve life
– Preserve the Constitution
– Make the future better without the government
– Make the military strong enough that our enemies always fear us, while making sure the American population is safe
These seem like simple principles to me. But when we have Susan Collins being passed as a Conservative? Then we don’t have those principles. And when we have people who call everyone who tries to instill some basic principles “PURISTS!” then we never will.
Principles are not bad at all. They are a great thing. Principles differ from person to person- and the importance of those principles differs even more.
But when a movement tries to move forward- it must have some guiding principle.
If we don’t set principles up for the Conservative movement… Are we really a movement at all?
