Republican Dialectic

There are a number of commentators and political operatives who are pushing the Republican Party to move to the left so it can win again. For instance:

This past weekend, I spoke at the Log Cabin Republicans convention in Washington, DC. I realize that there’s been a lot of media coverage of how it went. I am very proud to have the opportunity to speak on how the Republican Party can continue to find ways to be more inclusive and return to its core values and beliefs. -McCain Blogette

Colin Powell, of course, has also been speaking a lot about how the Republican Party should abandon its small government principles, because people like big government now. Arlen Specter left the Republican Party because he said the Party has moved too far to the right, and there’s no longer room for any moderates.

Let’s get to the root of what these people are saying. Are they saying: “Supporting big government, abortion, and same-sex marriage are fine principles?” Not really. If you listen closely, what you’ll here is: “Don’t you want to be liked? Don’t you want to be on a winning team? Don’t you want to be in power, in control?”

The bottom line is this is the dialectic process in full bloom. The thesis is: “You should develop a set of principles through thoughtful consideration, and stand for them.” The anti-thesis is: “You really want to be a member of a winning team.” The synthesis is: “After all, you need to be a member of a winning team in order to act on all those thoughtful principles you’ve developed.”

Each time your principles contradict what the team needs to win, the same mantra is brought out. “Don’t you want to be part of a winning team?” You’ve not lost a battle by putting the team above your principles, you’ve lost the war, because you’ve opened a battle plan your opponents can, and will, use with glee time and again to wear you down.

Sadly, I think the war within the Republican Party is already lost. There are far too many people who want to be in leadership positions, who’ve been conditioned to accept the dialectic, to recover the concept of thoughtful principles, even if the consequence is not being liked, or not being on a winning team. But this tells you a lot about America, and what the next ten to fifteen years holds. The final end will be ruin, followed by totalitarianism, to thunderous applause—because it’s always best to applaud the winning team.