apropos
09-04-2009, 05:08 PM
First, I think we should acknowledge that the argument we use - that Americans are obligated to follow the Constitution - is ineffective and unpersuasive to most Americans. The founding ideals of this country no longer hold sway on most of its citizens.
If Republicans truly valued Constitutional authority, we would not have seen support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Social Security, the various foreign policy entanglements, the Fed, or government-run "free trade" agreements. I'll call these "the statist Republicans", who can be the gatekeepers of the GOP's political party or just your average RedState.com blogger.
To start winning statist Republicans over to the side of classical liberalism and smaller government, they must be forced to re-evaluate their current beliefs. Where our pleas to respect Constitutional authority have failed, appeals to their political rancor may succeed....and turn pro-war Republicans into anti-war Republicans.
Most pro-war Republicans believe that spreading the American way (freedom, etc.) is justification for the wars. But what Republicans fail to realize is that they are spreading American qualities that they personally despise. For example: state-sponsored abortions, political correctness, affirmative action, hate crime laws, the usurping of religion in favor of government-as-saviour: these are things most Republicans hate, and these things represent the spirit of modern American times....much more so than the Constitution and classical liberalism. Therefore, where America spreads its influence, it spreads these attitudes. Europe, for example, was never politically correct before America's influence to be PC.
One might ask a pro-war Republican: our soldiers are dying so Obama and Pelosi can spread their influence to an international level? We should rebuild other ungrateful countries while our own bridges fall down? Protect the borders of Afghanistan and Iraq while our own are left wide open?
If pro-war Republicans are convinced that by their actions they are spreading the values they personally hate, pro-war becomes anti-war - and in the resulting vacuum they are much more receptive to a pro-Constitution argument.
If Republicans truly valued Constitutional authority, we would not have seen support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Social Security, the various foreign policy entanglements, the Fed, or government-run "free trade" agreements. I'll call these "the statist Republicans", who can be the gatekeepers of the GOP's political party or just your average RedState.com blogger.
To start winning statist Republicans over to the side of classical liberalism and smaller government, they must be forced to re-evaluate their current beliefs. Where our pleas to respect Constitutional authority have failed, appeals to their political rancor may succeed....and turn pro-war Republicans into anti-war Republicans.
Most pro-war Republicans believe that spreading the American way (freedom, etc.) is justification for the wars. But what Republicans fail to realize is that they are spreading American qualities that they personally despise. For example: state-sponsored abortions, political correctness, affirmative action, hate crime laws, the usurping of religion in favor of government-as-saviour: these are things most Republicans hate, and these things represent the spirit of modern American times....much more so than the Constitution and classical liberalism. Therefore, where America spreads its influence, it spreads these attitudes. Europe, for example, was never politically correct before America's influence to be PC.
One might ask a pro-war Republican: our soldiers are dying so Obama and Pelosi can spread their influence to an international level? We should rebuild other ungrateful countries while our own bridges fall down? Protect the borders of Afghanistan and Iraq while our own are left wide open?
If pro-war Republicans are convinced that by their actions they are spreading the values they personally hate, pro-war becomes anti-war - and in the resulting vacuum they are much more receptive to a pro-Constitution argument.