Conservative Refocus

By Barry Secrest

"Oh, My God, " pretty much sums it all up.

Many do not seem to fully understand the battle that is raging, at present, within the entire ideological Right-Wing of the United States, but raging it is, and in a way that seems to defy our history as a nation. In fact, the latest onslaught as perpetrated by the political Moderates, along with  the so-called "Conservative Media" and its laughably labeled oxymoron of the year, being Conservative Elites (not possible), has created an enormous amount of confusion between the standing of the two prime GOP candidates, those being Conservative Newt Gingrich and Moderate "Willard" Mitt Romney.

While watching this entire Dark Comedy hungrily unfold itself, like a slimy alien from a particularly dank hiding place, I could only shake my head ruefully and wonder mightily. The Moderates in the Republican media were unleashing an unparalleled internecine assault against Newt Gingrich after his South Carolina Primary win. In fact, the Gingrich double-digit win in South Carolina, a thing that none of the establishment Republicans had truly anticipated, transformed the simple and yet revealing GOP Primary tic-tac-toe match of the last 6 months, into a game of multi-dimensional, winner-take-all chess, such are the stakes in this Center-Right versus fully Right-Wing contest of the ages.

It was only a few days before the SC primary, when the great, and yet increasingly dubious, Charles Krauthammer, a man who I've typically found myself largely in total agreement with in the past, had joked that after New Hampshire, there was no way that Gingrich could win, while he was mightily proselytizing on Bill O'Reilly's show. Krauthammer went on to actually state that Gingrich was not at all going for a win in the SC primary, but rather Newt was only after "vengeance" after Romney's no-holds-barred assault on Newt in Iowa.

Nuking Newt

Now, at this point, my brows began  indignantly furrowing, only two comparably small primary contests so far,  and Krauthammer was  projecting a Romney win already? Not only that, Krauthammer was setting up a scenario that implied a complete lack of political character in Gingrich's seeking vengeance and destruction of Romney, even while totally disallowing Gingrich as a viable candidate. Nevermind the fact that Santorum actually won the first contest in Iowa.  Krauthammer went on to note that Gingrich was nothing more than "Captain Ahab on the lose." "Ouch."

At this point also in the interview, I knew that something was seriously amiss with Krauthammer's Conservatively-inspired, but highly moderated angst. While my suspicions had been piqued, it didn't take long for those suspicions to become well-founded. On Thursday, January 26th, the document dump began in earnest to clear the way for Romney in Florida by completely eviscerating Gingrich.

Ironically, it was only a week or so later in Florida that a Romney spokesman admitted  that the goals of the Mitt Romney Campaign were to completely alter Romney's plan of attack, away from the Marxist Obama, and towards an all-out attack of Conservative Gingrich. Not only that, and I quote a Romney spokesman, "Our goal is to completely destroy Newt Gingrich." Um...So, like,  is it time for the maniacal villain spooky laugh yet? Cue it Mitt, "Ah-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"..... "Gulp."

So, is this what you were, perhaps, referring to with your Captain Ahab remark, Charles Krauthammer?

A Demonic Ricochet

To that end, what had begun as nothing much more than an inner-family squabble at the outset, between a coalition of the Tea Party, Conservatives and Libertarians, fought against the anemic Establishment Republican Moderates, has now quickly devolved into a Battle Royale waged on the illicit terms of internecine warfare, as predicated by these Establishment Elites. Or put in another more extreme way, wanton ideological genocide of the Republican base by the Establishment appears to be the rule of day, as perpetrated by those high-profile professionals who languidly reside rather loosely within the Right-Wing of American politics.

But do they, the establishment types, actually understand this schism as being the penultimate harbinger of whether or not a possible third party could come into fruition, especially from these poorly conceived, group-think shenanigans?

The usual suspects, those being the primary Politicos and political columnists within the mainstream media and beyond, in retrospect, have  reacted rather predictably on one level, but also, quite hysterically on another. For Instance, in the screech heard round the world, the lovely and increasingly Moderate Ann Coulter, shrugged out of her part-time straight-jacket, and let loose a venomous hail of indiscriminate fire against the entire state of South Carolinian Conservatives, for Heaven's sake, after they chose Gingrich as their man, en mass. Coulter, in effect, accused these most Conservative of Americans of being Democrats, while implying an almost demonic influence at work. This tirade predictably raised hackles all over North and South Carolina; while we, the natives of  North and South Carolina, may have our silly differences, you just don't mess with Family, Ann.

But it didn't stop there, oh no. It was, indeed, just beginning as the Romney machine robotically clanked into motion, and the spinning blades of bureaucratic bedlam surged into action. One of the first was none other than Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Tea Party favorite, who having been obviously co-opted by those in power, at least on Gingrich, stated this: "I am fascinated that he is running as the non-establishment candidate, when he is the epitome of the establishment." Now, one supposes that someone within the vaunted halls of power should remind Rep. Chaffetz that Gingrich has been out of the US Government for over two decades, while, Chaffetz is, in fact, part of the Government, now. So, who is of the Establishment?

Attack Of The Killer Moderates

Next was former Sen. Bob Dole, another Moderate who served as Senate Majority Leader for several years and had little good to say about Gingrich; in fact, pretty much everything was bad, which coming from a Moderate, is actually a good thing. Dole, let loose a withering cannonade of repetitive fire against Gingrich, which amounted to this whiny approximation: "I lost the Presidential race against Bill Clinton because of the antics of Newt Gingrich," (paraphrased).  Ah, yes, Dole was not at all to blame, to be sure.

Another Moderate, and also another former Presidential campaigner, John McCain,  who recently endorsed Romney, stated of Gingrich, "A desperate candidate is a candidate who attacks someone who succeeds in the Free Enterprise system." Indeed, jilted John, and yet, were you not leveling attack after attack on Mitt Romney in 2008, prior to your losing to Obama?  So, by McCain's own reckoning, he himself was apparently a desperate candidate back in 2008 for his attacks on Romney, and we're not at all surprised by this; we were rather desperate, too, as I recall.  By the way, McCain also attacked millions of successful Businessmen and Business women, along with hundreds of millions of successful citizens, who make up the Tea Party, as nothing more than a bunch of "Hobbits." Now, let's get this straight folks, anyone who attacks the Tea Party as conceived, to me, is not even worthy of consideration.  But then, there is this rather brilliant campaign ad by McCain who completely backs Romney and calls him a flip-flop in 2008,  that is before McCain himself became a flip-flop in 2012 in his backing of Romney the flip-flopper.

Also in the mix, Tom Delay, the feared and former Conservative House Republican Majority Whip,  who was sentenced to three years in prison in January of 2011, stated, "Gingrich was ineffective as a Leader," among many other things. This, after Delay apparently incited a coup to try to take over Gingrich's leadership post in 1997, while also infuriating House Majority Leader and Tea Party favorite Dick Army. Delay stepped down from his finally realized post as Majority Leader after a 2005 indictment.

But it actually got even worse from there, as even The Drudge Report itself began piling into the pro-Romney bandwagon. So much so, in fact, that former Senator and staunch Conservative Presidential candidate, Fred Thompson, actually stated, "Mitt Romney has The Drudge Report in his back-pocket." This due to the fact that Drudge has apparently been pushing pro-Romney, anti-Gingrich propaganda from his site for months according to the Politico. Which would be fine, as long as Drudge might undertake to parlay the ideology of his powerhouse site clearly across each page, as does this site, with the words "Conservative" proudly emblazoned across each and every page. I don't know, though, somehow "Moderate" just doesn't have the same kick....

The storm of stories and articles seeking to nuke Newt would just keep coming from any and everywhere, including the Liberal media in Chicago, the NY Times, USA Today, virtually every Liberal and Moderate Republican media outlet known to modern civilization. I mean, you know things are bad when the supposedly Conservative National Review even gets in on the act of pummeling Gingrich in favor of Romney. The supposed "coin of the realm" being Republican Elliot Abrams, launched a withering attack on Gingrich, which appeared in the National Review, where Gingrich was said to have attacked President Reagan, only to be completely disproven as false in a later fact-finding article in American Thinker by Jeffrey Lloyd, titled, "Elliot Caught Misleading on Newt." In the article,  Lloyd was able to prove that Abrams had cited a Newt Gingrich quote falsely as having disparaged Reagan, when in fact, Gingrich had been staunchly defending Reagan. Tsk,Tsk...and we "Bloggers" catch all the hell?

Reagan To The Rescue...Again

So who are we to believe in all of this, finally becomes the question?

Well, the final answer to this question must go to the heart of the question, and the man of American history, and quintessential Conservative, who appears to be at the center of this ideological battle:  The late President Ronald Reagan. Now, who better to ask of this question than one of President Reagan's fiercest and most loyal of defenders, that being staunch Conservative and Reagan's own son, Michael Reagan. Granted, I have only exchanged very brief notes with Michael, in the past, but I have come to understand Michael Reagan as being a man who has honestly and deliberately carried the torch of truth about Conservatism and his Father's legacy proudly into this generation and, to be sure, well beyond.

Michael Reagan has, in fact, elected to go out onto the campaign trail with Gingrich in order to but right the record of Gingrich's support of Ronald Reagan in the past. On the subject of Newt, Reagan states , " Gingrich represents the Reagan Conservative wing of the Republican Party against the Rockefeller Moderates," and Michael further states that "The people who say he wasn't there weren't there."

So, that's pretty much enough for me, my friends, and it should also be noted that anyone who has read this site consistently, knows of my most profound feelings and adamant affections for President Ronald Reagan,  his enduring philosophy, and all that he represents, even now, to America and even the world.

So, What's Up With All Of This?

This battle, that has always been fought between the Constitutional Conservatives on the Right and the political Moderates of the center-right, nominally within the Republican Party, has always been, for the most part, a thing little understood and nearly impossible to define to most, otherwise-engaged, Americans. The reasoning for this is no less simple to figure out than the origins. The core of the problem appears to revolve around the varying degrees of either strong belief or measured disbelief, on a set of  particular  core issues held by each. Some issues being closely held, while others being distantly managed, the overall sum, along with their various weightings, becomes the bellwether for the political party and sub-grouping that each individual ultimately identifies with.

At least this was the way that it once was, in simpler times.

Nowadays, one Republican's or Democrat's beliefs may often run the extreme gamut, from the Liberal to the Conservative, or somewhere in between, on a range of issues, and this "gamut" being averaged out is "sometimes" the determining factor by which a particular politico will choose his party or his ideology or even be chosen. In other instances, it becomes a thing by which other individuals, often being supreme opportunists, will simply seek to advantage. In fact, the chosen party may come down to something as simple as a conveniently vacated seat in the House or the Senate, or even some disaster of a personal nature that a vacuously unprincipled political opponent can advantage for a sometimes outrageous personal gain at election time.

Granted, everyone has a different life story, and many still operate under those same "old values," but the political leaning will often nowadays be determined by an open vault of some very serious and certain other very ridiculous "where are you at" questions. This point is also why you will often see many groups or political causes that inspire an immediate double-take, followed by a confused shaking of the head.

Interestingly, these issues will invariably change over time and  often within a single generation. The thing that may have motivated someone in 1912 may often bear little resemblance to the thing that motivates another person in 2012. But the gentility that was once a foundation of Conservative values, in these waning days of Obama's self-defeating lunacy, has now become an anvil by which no idea or issue can easily be hammered into measurement.

For instance, a powerful belief in fiscal responsibility and Constitutional adherence lies at the very heart of the Conservative Tea Party movement, and yet it's somehow considered radical by some? And yet, a considerable number of the Establishment Republicans, along with virtually the entire Obama-led Democrat Party, in tandem with the Media, hold these Tea Party values to be a thing worthy of scorn, and even ridicule at best, in numerous instances.  In fact, if one watches very closely, one will even often see a deprecatory smirk by certain Republicans and virtually every Democrat when speaking of the Tea Party, even while the ravages of the smarmy moderate class have nearly driven our Republic to the verge of bankruptcy.

Individuals, it should be noted, as far as political issues go, present much the same as fingerprints in that no two are exactly alike and each is ideologically defined by the sum collection of his or her political beliefs, rather than the one or the few. Indeed, within that sum of beliefs in each individual, the degree to which each issue is held will also present much like a pallet of colors, no one shade being identical to its neighbor. The final result of all of these intangibles will virtually always culminate in each political primary becoming a thing that's always contentious and rarely, if ever, boring, along with that atypical question, increasingly heard near any contest, being, "are you sure you belong in this wing of the Party?"

Make no mistake, even the Messianic Mandragora, Obama himself, has grown withdrawn and even confused, as to where exactly, the Left-Wing aiming reticule should draw a bead, as the tactical battle for control intensifies. Interestingly, a target-rich environment on the Presidential side was the last thing that the Democrats actually wanted, because you see, the Obama ravaged Liberals are quickly running out of their most potent ideological ammunition.

The True Lunatic Fringe

To wit, the Establishment types now know that the Conservative movement that is raging throughout America, and has raged, over the past three years, could sweep the status quo in Washington completely out of power, and very soon. Remember, our goal, as Conservatives and Tea Party Members who love America and its Free Market Capital system, is two-fold. The first goal is regain control of our bewilderingly mismanaged Constitutional Republic away from the imbecilic Progressives and Elites who seem to lurk in every dark corner of power, at present, inside the Beltway and beyond. The second goal of action is to sweep out those members who claim to be of the Right Wing, while actually acting as dizzy denizens of the Left in their trampling of our US Constitution.

But what is beyond hysterical in all of this is the fact that we now have a bunch of squishy Moderates, those of the true Lunatic Fringe,  trying to convince us that their selection of the Establishment's Romney is the most Conservative of the candidates, while consistently attacking the Conservative's choice of Gingrich as being a Moderate of the Establishment. Which, come to think of it,  dovetails quite nicely with everything we have seen from the Obama Administration itself. That being, what once was up has become down, what once was good has become bad, and what what once was Moderate has now become Conservative.

But we simply aren't buying it this time around.  We still understand what a Conservative actually is, and while Romney talks the talk pretty well, he has rarely if ever walked the walk. In fact, everything about Romney screams Moderate, with even a certain, discernably latent, liberal echo effect. The mere fact that Romney fails to inspire anyone, beyond a bequieted and formal "clap-clap" of the hands, as opposed to Gingrich's thunderous standing ovations, rather conveniently displays where the Party's passion truly lies.

But, would we vote for him, being Romney, and defend him in writing, were he the final GOP nominee? Without hesitation, is the answer, barring certain extreme ideological difficulties, to be sure.   But our defence of Romney might also encompass a far greater measure of hope than the actual Conservatives, currently in the race.

Point In fact, being,  in every single presidential contest waged over the past 40 years, the Conservative candidate has won and the moderate candidate has lost.

Now, why do you suppose that is?

Lunatic fringe
I know you're out there You're in hiding And you hold your meetings

I can hear you coming We know what you're after We're wise to you this time
We won't let you kill the laughter

Lunatic fringe In the twilight's last gleaming This is open season
But you won't get too far

'Cause you gotta blame someone For your own confusion But I'm on guard this time
Against your final solution

We can hear you coming No you're not going to win this time We can hear the footsteps
Out along the walkway

Lunatic fringe We all know you're out there Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?