Posted by
Forgive My Patriotism on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:00:28 PM
How frustrating to have your opinion and reasonings so ignored and the argument continually cast in the light of your opponent's characterization.
Requiring a president have an "R" after his name regardless of his beliefs has got a certain ring to it historically. If this is your stake in this struggle going on within the Republican party, I'd like to remind you of the party's founder and what he believed. I ask that you sincerely search your heart and consider what it is that you are doing.
Our opposition to John McCain and our willingness to allow
the vote to go to Hillary is not a conscious decision to sabotage the country
for the sake of our principles.
We are not dedicated to the Republican Party. As much good has been done under that name, and
as profound as its origins are, even its founders are not dedicated to it.
We and they are dedicated to something much bigger – what is
right.
‘But Tanglelad, don’t you understand that you risk America?’
Stop right there. If
we, as our forerunners and the founders of the Republican Party, namely Abraham
Lincoln, were to succumb to the pressure of making political calculation and
compromise more important than our beliefs and principles, we become those who
oppose us. Namely, liberals. Compromise of values and morals is the very
institution that separates liberals from conservatives.
Abraham Lincoln firmly believed in the institution of
compromise. But understand that he
believed in self compromise. He
believed in compromise that showed an open hand to neighbors and enemies. He made mistakes in compromise, but he stood
firm to not compromise what is right and certainly to not compromise those he was
responsible for. He believed in
self-sacrifice. He believed that one
compromises what he can under the grace of God, but once the demand was made
for the compromise of righteousness, he pulled out a gun.
The determination to be
uncompromising is not puritanical. But
there has to be wisdom. There has to be
a point of rejection of policy and practice:
"The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject any thing, is not
whether it has any evil in it; but whether it has more of evil than of good.
There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost every thing ... is an
inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance
between them is continually demanded."
Don’t confuse his wise willingness
to compromise himself as weakness, reflect on how he would have dealt with half
of the Democrats in today's Congress:
"Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale
and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or
hanged."
Don't we as Republicans think these very thoughts every time someone attackes out troops? Where do our values lie today? With principle or compromise?
On trying to win at any
cost:
"Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can," he wrote
in a lecture for lawyers. "Point out to them how the nominal winner
is often a real loser--in fees, and expenses, and waste of time."
August 2004
On stopping the status quo
and pulling our heads out of our liberalized positions and stepping up to the plate:
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. As
our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall
ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
December
1, 1862
If this means watching the Republican Party crash in order
to keep from compromising what is right, or even suffering the accusation that
we could have stopped a known socialist from gaining power, so be it. We will not follow the Compromise Voters whether they have the name Republican or not. We are dedicated to the founding principles and that is where we are. It is the Compromise Voters that have left us and are taking the name Republican with them.
Jim Jones, Jim Baker, and the innumerable other preachers that have or have not washed-out stick a bible in the air and declare themselves Christians. I choose not to follow because I know what they are. I choose to stay who I am and what I am no matter how much they soil the name.
We all have to face God one day and he isn’t going to judge
how we didn’t keep Hillary out of office, He will judge whether we remained
strong even in the face of opposition from our own people.
Finally this I believe is how those of us who are principles
voters feel we must contend with liberals and most especially now, the Compromise
Republican Voters:
"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me,
this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I
know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If
the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to
anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would
make no difference."
I say – Amen.