The Republican Dilemma

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The Republican Dilemma

Lutherans singing in the Baptist Choir

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            There they were crying in the aisles and swaying to the music. The preference was not to watch it at all, but there was the need to switch the channel back to Fox so I could watch Gretchen, Steve, and Brian in the morning.

            If you were a space alien watching Earth TV for the first time, there is simply no doubt the Democratic Convention is more viewer alluring than the Republican. The music is better, the correctness is all aligned, Harry Potter is sprinkling fairy dust, and Bill Clinton is back stage triangulating pheromones with Sandra Fluke.

            What a production … it is in that contrived world those people are at their finest!

            Call to the gate

            Charles Krauthammer has become the elite conservative sage in the business today. It is only his weekly column that assures a no flinch response when it is read. He reported this morning the Obama popularity continues to reflect an inverse relationship with the Obama record. There is no way this should be happening.

That was clearly evident over the last 48 hour reporting cycle when Big Bill had to be trotted out to unconditionally assign his record to the campaign for its continued vitality. The infusion of the Clinton aura is, in itself, strange to me. The most honest response the former president displayed was when he went after the current president in the primary against Hillary in 2008. If he was intent on inaugurating his wife in 2017 or 2021, it would seem he should be keeping his powder dry. He’s the master politico, though, so what do I know?

Thank goodness it is over. Thank goodness both of the big productions are over!

We can now look forward to nonstop punch and counterpunch with the majority of the press spreading jelly over the horror of what most of us feel in our stomachs. 

What a debacle!

            The Republican syndrome

            There is something inherently troubling in the symbolism that the conservative camp projects during their convention. If I feel it, too many conservatives feel it.

            To try to define what it is, one clue may be found in the first dances we attended in junior high school. There were sponsors and chaperones, but it always felt different if your parents were the chaperones. If that was the case, there was a troubling, lingering haze of constraint. Remember that?

            When other chaperones were present the haze was a bit less dense and the actions of speech and spontaneity were more fluid. The point becomes, there was an undercurrent of influence that affected the proceedings.

            Similarly, there is something that affects staged conservative actions that alters and affects the ambience of the gathering. I think it is deference to political correctness. Attempting to appeal to a world that is framed by the greater press and a progressive social agenda, conservative actions of speech, spontaneity of intent, and character are altered. The chaperone in the room is not a parent. It is that dreaded master, political correctness.

            The outcome is what it is. The event often looks awkward and rehearsed. The rules being followed are not normal or natural preferences that a conservative being would pursue in an unscripted setting. It can even come across hokey, and the antagonists pounce upon the outcome. The participants are more easily minimized and vilified, and the masses are enlisted to join in the jeering.

It is that junior high dance revisited. The conservative is admonished. He much prefers a venue that is more natural.  

The liberal response is completely different. There is nothing more appealing than sharing emotions in a mob. Liberalism is predicated on mob action. The drummer is going to bang away a bit harder, the amplifier is going to be raised another decibel and the speech writer is going to alter a phrase to capture a yet more exhilarating clash of ecstasy. The press is up there in the rafters playing the symbols! All is well in Valhalla! Let is all hang out! All for one and one for all! We are family! Hey, I love you man …

And, Bill Clinton is out in the bus triangulating pheromones with Sandra Fluke.      

Unbecoming requisites

Modern, televised conventions are the platforms upon which liberals best perform. It should be no surprise why Hollywood is so embedded. Their stage is a continuum of the world that Barrack Obama excels at and has continued to act upon for his entire life. It is make believe and it has been made real by those jeering mobs chastising the individual.

Conservatives need to grow up. The stage they step out on in the future needs to be a stage that is defined by confidence of actions. Scrap the political correct productions. Stop behaving as if you are concerned your actions will cause consternation with your parents. Embrace your beliefs and shout them to the world. They are correct, and, when they are projected with raw honesty, they command appeal.

Three speeches at the Republican Convention stand out as examples. In order of their presentation they were given by Condoleezza Rice, Susana Martinez, and Marco Rubio. Actually, I have inappropriately described them. They weren’t just speeches. They were meaningful conservative self and core principles captured in words.

The message from each was an accurate depiction of events and issues that have us supremely concerned. The elegance and trustworthiness of Rice, the feistiness and instinctive compass of MY governor Martinez, and the natural credibility and freshness of Rubio combine to instill a confidence that I have not felt in a long time.

In each, I felt the buzz of emotion that was absent in all other speeches.

I suspect I should go back and listen only to the audio of Mr. Romney’s speech. Perhaps the words alone, without the video, would be more powerful.

Mr. Romney is the most striking example of the inappropriateness and risks of an orchestrated convention format. He doesn’t like it. It doesn’t fit his personality, and he comes across altered from his real being. The resulting, subtle awkwardness leaves him vulnerable to the biased depictions of the prevailing press, and … Obama’s boat remains afloat.

Seek the Truth

One of the best pieces of advice I ever had was, “If you are going to be (something), you’d better look and act the part.”

This presidential campaign is not a debate club event. It is a bar fight of Blue Front proportions. If Mitt Romney is going to beat Barrack Obama, he had better learn how to bar fight better than anybody ever fought before. Our country … our existence as we know it … depends on the outcome.

For example, I disagree with Mr. Krauthammer’s couched reference, social-democrat. I am inclined to call it what it is … Communist. Likewise, “In God We Trust” forms our complete foundation. It shall not be displaced by “In God we hold contempt”!

Finally, 50 sovereign states exist out here with an infinite capacity to change, evolve, and define new and unexpected routes to our future. Nihilistic buffoonery, however articulate, cannot be more enterprising than a legion of free, independent, and God fearing men acting in their own best interests. If Washington cannot exist without trampling the rule of law, it must be terminated.

Seeds of hope

We must prevail in this presidential election.

Beyond this cycle there can be hope. What is out there that provides that hope?

There was a little girl who grew up in Alabama and whose mother told her she could become President of the United States. There was another little girl who grew up within a rock’s throw of Mexico across the Rio Grande. There was another little boy whose family fled Cuba and all their worldly possessions. There is a man whose family was evicted from Mexico on the heels of yet another revolution.

Who are these people?

            For one thing, they are people who have evolved beyond the need to qualify their introductions by an identifying moniker. They are no longer he, she, blue, orange or chartreuse Americans … they are, simply, Americans.  

Three of them touched me emotionally with their demonstration of that freed bond. One of them, the most important at this moment, is uniquely qualified to start fixing the economic ailment that threatens our existence.

He needs our help …because we need his.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “I must say that Republicans at convention remind me too much of Lutherans trying to sing in an all black choir … their rhythm just doesn’t get it done.”