More From Bill...
We need more skillful politicians, not better principles....
Bill’s latest:
“…the fact they [people like Senator Mike Lee who has a 96% conservative rating] keep losing the battle means that we need to find new people willing to fight. That isn’t complicated Ron, the Republicans are like the Bengals. Get new coaching and you get to the super bowl. Unless you want them to come in second all the time? That is my point. It seems like you want to lose.”
Notice carefully where Bill places the blame for failed conservative legislation - not on those who oppose and vote against it, but, incredibly, on those who promote and vote for it. By some twisted logic, those, like Mike Lee, who embrace conservative principles, frame legislation based on those principles and then vote for that legislation are the ones at fault. They're just not good enough at what they do.
Bill simply ignores the substance of the issues at hand in our government and how it is the underlying intellectual, moral and spiritual substance of the people and their chosen leaders that determines what ideas and values rule the land, not the skill of politicians.
Bill assures us if only conservatives would put up people who are better looking, smoother of tongue, glibber and more persuasive, better panders, more "willing to fight" (whatever that means), the whole vast mountain of intellectual, moral and spiritual corruption that permeates the ruling establishment and their corrupt, useful idiot base - people who contend to the last ditch against conservative principles and values - all the rot that has brought America to the brink - will simply melt away, conservative values will prevail, all will be sweetness and light, and common sense will reign supreme.
Or, in other words, paraphrasing 'enry 'iggins in "My Fair Lady", "If only a conservative could be more like a liberal!"
Notice, too, that Fish never addresses the philosophical/libertarian ideas, principles and arguments that were the drivers of the founding of America, ideas that filled the passionate minds and hearts of the founding generation - as they do today's generation of patriots - ideas the Founders declared would always be the lifeblood of the nation. Whenever these classic libertarian ideas are brought up and referenced in the context of current events, or as a means to understanding what is actually happening around us today and what must be done to address our problems, Bill goes stuporous, radio silent. He never has given any indication that he understands the libertarian philosophy that gave birth to America and, though he has had ample opportunities, never responds to the founding arguments as they might be applied today in solving our problems.
My guess? Bill, in his heart of hearts, believes, like liberals in general, that the ideas of the Founding Fathers are irrelevant and passé today, and that those who cling to those ideas are equally irrelevant and passé - we yokels Obama arrogantly denigrated as “clinging to their guns and Bibles” - both ideas, by the way - the right to keep and bear arms and a God-fearing citizenry - the Founders understood to be essential to the viability of America as a free and prosperous nation.
I suspect Bill’s natural instincts tend toward that same liberal elitism rather than fundamentalist conservatism. Like liberals in general, I think Bill believes the answers for America lie in the brilliance of those who are willing and able to seize power, who will do whatever is necessary to seize power, and then get down to the business of telling all the rest of us what to do - all for our own good, of course. These are the sort of people Fish admires.
For such people, absolute, non-negotiable principles that frame our biggest problems in stark blacks and whites - right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, light vs. darkness, liberty vs. tyranny, good vs. evil - are seen as threats rather than solutions because such absolute principles gut the unbounded ambitions and limit the prerogatives of those who are certain in their own minds that they are better and smarter than you and me, smarter than the Constitution, smarter than the rule of law, smarter than all of history, smarter even than God himself, are naturally entitled to take dictatorial control of our lives and resources - all for our own good, of course - and need complete latitude to express their brilliance without having to be constrained by inconvenient, outmoded laws or primitive intellectual, moral or spiritual values.
That is the liberal ideological well I suspect Bill drinks from.
Especially given his association with LDS theology, it is hard for me to believe that a smart guy like Bill can be so ignorant and naive, oblivious to what is really going on in America. He is determined to turn a blind eye to the intellectual, moral and spiritual roots of the existential threats the nation faces, and thus, having failed to correctly define the problems and being forever consumed with superficialities - rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic - he will never be able to come up with effective solutions and will likely continue to dismiss the very sort of conservative candidates we need.
What we are up against today, as a JBS commentator recently observed, is not Republicans vs. Democrats, but constitutional conservatives vs. everybody else - those who have principles vs. those who do not.
Unless America returns to her founding principles - the Judeo/Christian libertarian philosophy that gave her life - she is finished as a free and prosperous nation.
These are the times that try men’s souls…
Torquemada