The Conservative Problem
Someone recently said: "If the Republicans (conservatives) have control of all three branches of our government, then why do the Democrats (liberals) keep on winning?" Good question! The answer lies in a place in which very few people are looking. It is right before our eyes and either people are blind to it or they don't want to admit it.
From my study of the situation in today's national politics and from a somewhat enlightened knowledge of human nature, I have spotted the root problem and what it is causing. It is the Republican party itself. The conservatives themselves are the liberal establishment's greatest ally without even recognizing what they are doing. Let's employ a few lines to discuss the difference in the thinking process of the people who make up the two basic parties. Liberals (Democrats) are people who have already found comfort in compromising basic tenets in order to get what they want. They don't fight among themselves too much because their moral and political stances have already been compromised as evidenced by their convoluted stance on just about any and every subject. They have strong rationalizing powers and they put it into high gear when they have an agenda to accomplish. If fact, they rationalize as much as a conservative analyzes as he decides if an issue fits inside his moral, ethical and political parameters. The liberal has parameters which stretch in any direction to fit whatever his agenda might be.
Conservatives have a strength which, in the governmental arena, is also a weakness. They are people who are very dedicated to principles which are unchanging. They are committed to these principles and will fight anyone, even another conservative, is there is even the smallest disagreement on some point in the discussion which might be under way. These people generally do not make good committee people because they are "set in concrete" and committees are generally consensus creatures which usually fall to the lowest common denominator of acceptability in order to get something out of the committee. Congress is a huge committee made us of even more committees. No wonder our laws are so complicated! And no wonder so many of the participants of the committees feel that they have violated themselves in order to deal with an issue. This feeling of violation comes from the fact that the conservative mind simply has extreme difficulty in stretching his parameters in order to reach a consensus.
However, the liberal mind finds little if any problem with compromising. They have already done so much of it that their thinking process and conscience are accustomed to simply advancing their agenda regardless of some of the "parameter stretching" (compromising) they must do. Somehow, they think that if their compromising of basic tenets accomplishes their goal then it was all right to take such a stance. They are pragmatists of the first order. This is the way abortion, same sex marriage and other such things have achieved legal status. We often wonder how in the world a certain politician can support and champion some of the things they align themselves with. How could they make such statements as we have heard them make concerning moral, ethical and spiritual subjects? The conservative shakes his head and sighs as he wonders where in the world is this person coming from? How in the world can he be saying and thinking such nonsense. The reason he feels this way is that he views life as governed by his conservative parameters and wonders just how some liberal can possibly think the way they do. He has trouble seeing how anyone could live within parameters that look more like a trapezoid than a neat square or rectangle with perfectly defined borders governing everything within.
So, what happens when these two worlds collide? Who emerges the victor most of the time? How does it happen? If one party controls every governing part of our government, how does the other party come out on top or is able to so distort the issue that the controlling party doesn't achieve what it was striving for? The answer lies in the difference in the makeup of liberals over against conservatives.
Liberals are like a hive of bees. They are all for one and one for all. They have an agenda which the whole hive works to achieve. Nothing will stop them. They have a goal and they all swarm to the issue just as bees all swarm on anything that threatens the hive. The details are not important to them but the achievement of their goal is paramount evidenced by "we must pass it in order to know what is in it." How airheaded is that? They also understand that if enough questions are raised and if enough rumors are circulated and if it is done long enough, people will begin to believe them. This is true especially if the major news networks (which are also very liberal) are in cahoots with them and assist their efforts with every newscast and news program. And, the masses of people who listen to them usually don't know enough about the situation to know who is manipulating them and who isn't. But, the fact that the information is presented on television, radio, the internet or social sites, adds to the legitimacy of the issue as presented. So, the hive is furiously working to achieve its goal. And, with a society which has been infused with liberal ideas for the past fifty or sixty years in our public schools, the liberal ideas and positions are easily absorbed.
Conservatives, as stated above, live is strict confines. They feel they have compromised their principles if they venture out of their well-defined parameters. In fact, instead of working together like the liberal "hive" does, they will fight among themselves to prove who is the most conservative or who is most right in what they are considering. While liberals focus on the goal, conservatives focus on the issue and their very nature makes it almost impossible for them to modify their position. They could not live with themselves if they thought that they had compromised. Their neat little well defined parameter on life would have been skewed into another shape and that is intolerable for them. Conservatives are in somewhat of a continuous internal battle as they try to prove to other conservatives just who is the most conservative. And, if someone gives even a hint that they are thinking about adjusting their position on an issue, they are in danger of being called a "moderate" or a liberal and that they would be banished from the group. Bottom line is that conservatives are so rigid they find that they will fight among themselves over the smallest issue. So, then, in a society which has been liberalized over the past half century, the conservatives (those unmovable, opinionated, straight-backed purists) are automatically viewed as the enemy and even view some of their own as potential enemies because of a difference of opinion on some issue they feel is non-negotiable. The liberals find a ready audience for anything "off the wall" they want to promote because of a society which has been programmed, and is continuing to be programmed, to accept anything that allows them to do what they want to do.
Human nature is on the liberal's side. Humans will do more and more in an effort to satisfy themselves no matter what the issue is. Because of our nature, people are driven to go further and further than they went the last time or else they will get bored. The compromising nature of liberals who will stretch their parameters into a weird looking trapezoid are perfectly suited for our human nature. Conservatives who live in their well-defined "square" parameter, are not well suited for satisfying our nature which defies any kind of limitation. As already stated, we even fight within our well defined parameter for the "most conservative" viewpoint. Herein is where we become a helper of the liberal agenda and where we lose our strength. Liberals look progressive and sweet while the conservatives look mean and strict. While we may be exactly right on an issue, liberals hold a trump card and it is that they are willing to work like a hive of bees for their cause no matter what they must compromise to do so. They push things down the throats of the populace and really don't care what the people think about it. Their focus is on winning no matter what. Conservatives fight against themselves. They are caught up in the issue and the "correctness" of every facet of that issue. Their nature drives them to do so. Conservatives will "eat each other alive" while liberals present a united front to get their job done.
A look at Congress will demonstrate the point. Why do the democrats (liberals) always seem to do so well even though they do not control any of the divisions of our government? Recent deliberations on the Health Care issue are a good issue to review. The Democrats passed the Health Care law and didn't care what anyone thought about it. When they have the power they use it! But, the Republicans had to fight among themselves and in doing so, they lost their power. When Republicans get in power they are expected to be "statesmen" and "diplomats" and they become concerned about what their "image" is. In doing so, conservatives give up the power they actually have and in the process they begin to fuss and fume with each other over smaller details which they think violates their strict viewpoints. If they worked together like a hive of bees.....game over!
All the liberals have to do is wait for the conservatives to self-destruct. And, it seems to happen all too often. A smaller group of liberals in congress have learned that if they talk enough and if they accuse enough, and if they delay enough, the conservatives will chip away at their own votes because they will fracture into groups that will not vote with the others and therefore lose their majority power. Until our conservative leaders understand this, they will always be in a vital battle for survival even though they possess the majority votes.
They will continue to lose while they actually become the most reliable tool the liberals have in their quest to change the fiber of America.
Bill Harrell
4-13-2017