Posted on October 28, 2014

Why Republicans Are Worthless

Earl P. Holt, American Renaissance, October 28, 2014

There is a war being waged for the soul of the Republican Party. It consists of a loose alliance of Tea Party groups and traditional conservatives, who are trying to wrest control from the politically moderate businessmen who have misguided the GOP for decades.  Just as Clemenceau warned that “war is too important to be left to the generals,” the battle to preserve Western Civilization is too important to be left to businessmen. Since avoiding controversy seems to be an almost universal concern among businessmen–bad publicity could lower profits–they are vulnerable to manipulation by the Left and the media that act as its PR organ.

 More than economics

While it is a true that “those who pay the piper get to call the tune,” the influence of large, corporate contributors actually works to prevent the crafting of a sound Republican message with broad appeal. Most Republican businessmen fail to recognize that surviving ideological assaults requires engaging the Left on many fronts that go well beyond narrow public finance issues and tax policy. Their shortsightedness has prevented the GOP from attracting more Americans, particularly those who call themselves independents.

Indeed, the economically oriented nature of Republican corporate contributors has often led to defeat because it avoids many compelling “social” issues with which we can win. This lack of enthusiasm for social issues seems to define most “moderate” and “establishment” Republicans, who seem to be particularly contemptuous of paleo-conservatives who have always preached the need to engage the Left on every front.

In fact, the forced integration of schools and neighborhoods, the pervasive nature of black violent crime, the tsunami of legal and illegal immigrants, and so-called “affirmative-action” in hiring and admissions play a far greater role in the lives of most Americans than do changes in marginal tax rates or interest payments on the national debt.

Duck Dynasty

The Left’s assault on the West involves a great deal more than economics: It targets every historical and cultural tradition, as well as every institution, principle, and value. And Since many “social” issues are not amenable to the kinds of cost-benefit analyses at which businessmen shine, Republicans are disarmed when faced with non-economic issues, and tend to address them in conformist and cowardly ways.

When Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty said a few things that annoyed homosexuals, Cracker Barrel immediately removed many Robertson-endorsed items from their shelves, in response to the predictable outcry from homosexual groups. How any business could so badly misperceive the sentiments of its own customer base is hard to imagine. In any event, an enormous public backlash forced Cracker Barrel to reverse itself within a few days, and return these items to its shelves.

The outcry against Cracker Barrel’s cowardice was only partly due to the popularity of the television series. It also reflected public outrage at homosexual organizations that seem to have no difficulty forcing their agenda on the majority of unsympathetic Americans. For Cracker Barrel to have submitted to the demands of a tiny, loud and militant minority–that is totally at odds with the values of most of its patrons–should have been a humiliation to the company, and a wake-up call to corporate America.

 Questionable political judgment

When CEOs are not queuing up to support unpopular public policies, such as Obama-care or affirmative action or immigration amnesty, they can usually be found lobbying their mortal enemies for legislative favors. I am old enough to recall how most high-profile GOP businessmen preferred Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush to that “controversial” and “extremist” candidate, Ronald Reagan–the man who won 49 states in 1984, defeated Communism, and helped create 22 million new jobs.

During his quest to win the Cold War, some of President Reagan’s most entrenched adversaries were Republican businessmen addicted to Soviet trade who, by the late 1970s, seemed determined to fulfill Lenin’s prediction that Communists would “hang the capitalists with the very rope they sell us.” The same businessmen tried to convince Reagan to jettison his pro-life stance, and convinced George W. Bush to support amnesty for illegal aliens. They are the same people who advised John McCain never to mention Jeremiah Wright in Mr. McCain’s timid 2008 campaign against Barack Obama, and they now warn Republican office-holders to support amnesty for yet more illegal aliens.

By emphasizing economic issues, Republicans have actually adopted a peculiar form of Marxism: They have joined the Left by endorsing economic determinism. A Republican Party of businessmen preoccupied with economic issues at the expense of everything else will remain a minority party forever, and will eventually disappear like the Whigs.  Without the efforts of Paleo-conservatives and Tea Party and other patriot groups, there would be no real opposition to the Obama administration. We will never get effective leadership from people who can think no further than the corporate bottom line.