Perri Nelson's Website 

It's time for a conservative revolution

Do you recall how recently the spin machines of the Republican front-runners were twisting and warping the definition of "conservative" to fit the political ideologies of their candidates? Do you recall how this past winter, McCain was said to be rallying conservatives? For those of you that have followed it, do you recall when John McCain was leading in the GOP Bloggers straw polls and was many "conservative" respondents' "first choice"?

Do you remember when John McCain said to the Washington Post "My record is the same on all issues, which is that of a conservative Republican. Not a liberal Republican. Not a moderate Republican."?

I said then that it was all a load of horse manure, and that it was just a strategy to position himself for a Presidential campaign run. I outlined a litany of conservative complaints against the Senator from Arizona then.

Senator McCain is not, and has not ever been, a conservative. He has never deserved a single vote from conservatives in his constituency. Conservatives should never have been fooled by this so-called maverick into believing he would be a good choice for President.

I would go so far as to call him a RINO — Republican In Name Only — if it weren't for the fact that the Republican Party itself has become so filled with spineless moderates and outright leftists.

As if we needed further proof that Senator McCain is not a conservative we now have his own words. In the New York Sun today we can find them:

WASHINGTON — While the White House is blaming the Democratic leadership for the collapse of the immigration bill, Senator McCain is directing his ire at members of his own party.

The Arizona senator, asked yesterday to explain the bill's failure last week, cited the work of "the more conservative, anti-immigrant, anti-legislation group" of lawmakers who defeated the proposal in Congress.

That would be "more conservative" than Senator McCain. As for "anti-immigrant", Senator McCain is twisting words. The people who are against this bill are not "anti-immigrant". They are anti-illegal-immigrant. There is an incredibly large difference.

This bill is itself anti-immigrant. This bill favors those who have broken our laws to enter the country over those who have followed our laws to obtain the right to live here legally.

More importantly though, it was truly conservatives that caused this bill to falter. I won't say it failed last week. As long as people like Senator McCain remain actively in support of it this bill isn't dead. 

"I think the Senate works in a way where relatively small numbers can block legislation, but I also think the more conservative, anti-immigrant, anti-legislation group were very well backed up by a very vocal group of people who were supporting them," Mr. McCain said on ABC's "This Week."

Did you catch that? "A very vocal group of people". This is one of the few times that conservative voices in the electorate have spoken out loudly enough to be heard. Somehow that's a bad thing, at least to Senator McCain. Heaven forbid that the American People should cause their representatives to bend their ear to listen to their voices.

Ah, but then that's exactly what Senator McCain doesn't want anyway isn't it? Who can forget that he and Senator Feingold put their efforts and names behind one of the single greatest bills to crush the voice of the people in the 21st century?

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, pulled the bill from the Senate floor last week after it failed a second test vote to limit debate. Mr. McCain's reaction has differed from that of the White House, which has expressed disappointment in Mr. Reid for not allowing a longer period of debate on the bill.

Mr. Reid has faulted Republicans, saying they were trying to stall action on the bill by offering too many amendments.

So how on Earth is that reaction any different from Senator McCain's? Both of them are faulting Republicans. Doesn't that tell you which side of the aisle Mr. McCain truly belongs on?

Yes, I know Senator McCain's reaction was just described as different than that of the White House. If that's all you see in that excerpt, you're missing my point. John McCain is more closely aligned with the Democratic party than with the Republican party.

Why else was he considered by some to be the front-runner for the Democratic Vice-Presidential ticket with John Kerry during the spring of 2004? Even Hillary Clinton got behind that idea.

As for Senator Reid's objection that Republicans were trying to offer too many amendments to this 800 page abomination of a bill (or is it 900, I keep hearing conflicting accounts), perhaps it wasn't that too many amendments were being offered. Perhaps instead it was what the amendments actually said that Senator Reid objected to. Maggie's Notebook offers a good sampling of the amendments that were rejected.

But Senator McCain isn't the real issue here anyway, as much as I would love to see his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination go down into flaming defeat. It's what he said about conservatives that's the issue. Senator Reid isn't the issue either.

The real issue is that both of these men recognize why the amnesty bill faltered last week. The bill faltered because conservatives spoke up and told their Senators how bad this bill really was, and some of them listened.

Conservatives are under-represented in Congress. Even so, conservative voices can still be heard when we are passionate enough. Perhaps it's time for conservatives to learn something from the socialist and anarchist left. Perhaps it's time for a conservative revolution. Our voices can be heard. We can get through to our representatives, even when men like John McCain and Russ Feingold do their worst to make sure that we don't.

Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Committees of Correspondence, DeMediacratic Nation, Maggie's Notebook, On the Horizon, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, third world county, stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Maggie's Notebook trackbacked with "Why John McCain Should Not Be the Next President"

It's untenable for a U.S. Presidential candidate to equate America's immigration problem with the Islamic debacle in France. And, how about the snit that French gendarmes can't even enter certain neighborhoods in France? Well...they're French - it's ...

Karl commented:

The GOP is definitely due for some changes.

David commented:

A couple of comments in your post jumped 0out at me:

"That would be "more conservative" than Senator McCain. As for "anti-immigrant", Senator McCain is twisting words. The people who are against this bill are not "anti-immigrant". They are anti-illegal-immigrant. There is an incredibly large difference."

"Snake" McCain is not only not at all conservative, he's a world class liar.

"Conservatives are under-represented in Congress."

There are almost NO conservatives in congress, and the ones that do exist fall prey to the typical American conservatism syndrome noted by R.L. Dabney in the late 19th century:

"Conservatism's history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward to perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It tends to risk nothing serious for the sake of truth."

Lastly, do note that the original American Revolution was a "conservative revolution" seeking to restore and protect and preserve what the Founders and Framers viewed as their traditional rights as Englishmen... and so stated by them over and over again. No lesser statesman than Edmund Burke, in presentation to Parliament a year before the Revolution broke out (March 22, 1775), made note of the fact that this was the aim of the colonists.

David commented:

Addendum: Let me now highly recommend the whole of Burke's speech, which begins (or very nearly begins) with

"First, the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object; and every nation has formed to itself some favourite point, which by way of eminence becomes the criterion of their happiness.... "

Powerful. Burke, above most of his contemporaries, understood the root of the quarrel the colonists had with the English King: the usurpation of their rights.

Would that Americans today could see half so deeply. Our citizenry are like frogs in a kettle in which the temperature has slowly and almost imperceptibly risen until at last (hopefully not, but signs are not universally good) the frogs (citizens) are being cooked in their complacency...

*sigh*

"Liberties? WHat liberties?" All that will soon be left us will be those pseudo freedoms licensed (and rigidly controlled) by The State. 1984 a little late, but arrived nonetheless, whether as the land of Harrison Bergeron or WallyWorld... or *shudder* both... en español.

Perri Nelson commented:

David, you are so right.

What I would love to see is a return to the constitutional principles upon which our nation was founded. The creeping malaise of socialism has infected our nation for over 150 years, always under the disguise of "progress".

R.L. Dabney's words were right then, and they're right today. We can see the ever leftward shift in our political discourse over just a couple of decades if we pay attention at all.

As long as conservatives are seen and portrayed as "holding back" progress, rather than seeking a return to true liberty, the media and the left will always speak lovingly of the "mavericks" in our midst. It's truly time once again for a conservative revolution.

The founders gave us a truly great nation, with enormous potential. The so-called progressives have gradually chipped away at that foundation, seeking always license over liberty.

Today's left has conflated the two. To them "liberty" means following your base animal instincts and letting the government take care of the mess left behind. Ultimately I believe that's the road to slavery, and we're far down that path already.

Maggie M. Thornton commented:

Perri, thanks so much for the mention. Your point about the amendments...this was our dinner conversation last night. Who cares about the number of amendments, it's what the amendments say. They think we are so stupid!

I want to be the first member of your revolution :-)

Maggie
Maggie's Notebook

Sisao Tresed commented:

Senators are starting to show their real socialist sides when you hear remarks like that by Trent Lott that take umbrage with remarks about why they decided to vote with the liberal masses. We ask questions because WE are Your boss, not the other way around. We can ask whatever we want, and we should.

Thomas Jefferson told of the blood of tyranny. Our country is evaporating right before our eyes.
I'm so discouraged, and hopeless. My family fought several times for this great land, now, the elite sell it to highest bidder. They are truly America's highest paid whores, not senators.
Sisao Tresed