If we lived in a parlimentary system, the Constitution Party might make some sense. Get enough red-meat conservatives together to get at least five percent of the vote and gain some seats in Parliment.
Of course, you would then need to form a coalition with other parties, and make compromises in order to be part of the ruling coalition. In our system, you make your compromises earlier rather than later to create a party that can win a majority of the votes in the election - but in both systems, they still have to be made - unless you can win an outright majority without other factions - which ain't gonna happen in 2004.
Nowadays, the hard-left and hard-right have about the same numbers and are loathe to cross over, so the battleground in the presidential election is to win the 20 percent or so who make up the mushy middle without losing too much on the flanks - Gore lost in 2000 because he lost more of his flank vote than Bush did. And the mushy middle rules elsewhere - the current alignment on SCOTUS allows frickin' Sandra Day O'Conner to set judicial policy as the swing vote between two factions. It sucks cheese, but it is the current reality.
Trust me, I feel the same pain on many days when I open up FR and see the latest spending proposals. But we also can influence the GOP from within - Bush agreed to spending limits after a near-mutiny from conservatives. And since we're not having a GOP primary this election, this is the time to yell the loudest, prior to the convention, so we get to lay some of the planks in the GOP platform. And that is one of only two platforms with any chance of enactment - so you can decide whether you want to build a pristine Constitution Party platform that is pleasing to look at but will never be used, or you can fight for as many planks as you can get with the GOP platform and then live with it until we can mint more conservatives.
In the end, you have to decide - who do you think the Bush Admin is going to listen to - folks who are unwilling to be part of a larger coalition if they don't get their way, or folks who will support a larger coalition if they get some of their way? You have to think long and hard as to whether you want to be inside or outside power.
I'm sick of these cargo-cult conservatives who want to run away from the real political process and whimper amongst themselves how great the country would be if some strong jack-booted Leader would force the people to respect the Constitution.
The fault is in the people, but what great propaganda it is to give them some one else to blame!
I am sure that eight years of Kerry and a Democratic congress will do wonders for everyone. Perhaps, after the new President appologises to Islamists as he has promised, raises taxes on the "rich", reunites us with the Europeans by signing the ICC and Kyoto accords, and takes the profits of the evil drug and healthcare industries by further limiting competition, then the forces of "true" conservatism will have won.
In politics, winning is everything — for the Democrat Party, for the Republican Party....and for the Constitution Party. If you lose, you can't implement your agenda.
Yes! Let's follow the example of the far left for success!
Flush with excitement from garning 2.7 percent of the vote for Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections and denying Al Gore the presidency, they have pursued a convoluted antiwar agenda and taken over the primary process in 2004 to where the best candidate they can muster is a Massachusssets liberal who makes Ted Kennedy look conservative by comparison, thereby almost guaranteeing Bush the White House for four more years without even campaigning yet.
But at least their hearts are pure and untainted by that horrible compromising with moderates that is required to win the White House!
If the right wing takes five percent of the vote from Bush, that sure would show 'em!
It is then our job to support them in prayer and stand with them when they are persecuted
And when they become weak and want to compromise we hold their feet to the fire.
All well and good but where are all the dinosaurs gone?
First an excerpt from the piece:
"Both parties are taking us to a New World Order at mach speed while the see no evil, hear no evil Christians do nothing. This Blind Loyalty has gone to such an extreme that if anyone mentions something negative about a Republican politician, the Christians attack the messenger. They have forgotten that God says to stand for righteousness not Republicanism. Or maybe their preachers have never bothered to mention it.
If Christians are not salt and light, they are good for nothing. Every Christian will give an account on how he governed in this constitutional republic. What will the Lord Jesus Christ say, "Well done my good and faithful servant" or "their blood will I require at your hands"?
It is well past time to be loyal to Christ instead of the Republican Party. Time to stand for righteousness. It is time for a third party; the Constitution Party is the one I have in mind. Visit their website at www.constitutionparty.com. Check out their party platform and their candidates and you will see a big difference. Maybe if we practice tough love the Republican Party would repent and come back to its platform. But if not, duty is duty. Let righteousness ring!"
First of all, it is the liberal wing of the democratic party, now just about the entire party from a pragmatic perspective, is taking us to a "new world order" a LOT faster than anything the Rs have done or do. It may simply be a case of 0 steps forward or 5 steps back, but that "0 step(s) forward" is at least halting progress. And even if it is somehow perceived that it's 2 steps back or 5 steps back, take the lesser.
Secondly, anyone familiar with what the scripture says, and I don't mean in a general sense, I mean in a deeper sense, Christians who actually study the Bible themselves vice simply gobbling up what their pastor tells them, should easily see that Christians are to "salt and light" personally, not as mere collective. That is where the entire thing has fallen apart.
This article, while recent, is dated, back about four or five decades quite frankly if not even further. Christians ceased studying for themselves, in large part, a long time ago. They began to believe what many errant pastors and other church leaders, such as the liberal pastors today, told them along the way!
While I agree, that the Rs are not exactly God's right hand here in politics in America, it should be pretty clear that the libs are Satan's right hand, in spades.
They are pro everything that God is against at the most important levels/issues.
"Every Christian will give an account on how he governed in this constitutional republic. What will the Lord Jesus Christ say, "Well done my good and faithful servant" or "their blood will I require at your hands"?
This is true, however, it doesn't say 'well done good and faithful non-servants...' does it! To assume that the single truly Christian voting base can singlehandedly vote the new president into office is so incredibly flawed that it's not even worth discussing why. If it weren't so, then what "God told Pat Robertson" would have come true and he'd have been president, eh! Ironically, that didn't happen. Not that I'm an enormous Robertson fan, but he have "fit the bill" politically from the perspective that this author shares.
Here's a far more important piece of information that the author seems to be completely ignorant of:
Matt. 36-39 and context:"36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."
Absent in that passage is any indication that mere men can alter God's timing and overall plan. There are other indications that prayer would be the most effective tool. How many hours have you spent in prayer on the issue Ms. McGinley?
I just took a peak at your website. Frankly, I have some "issues" and "questions." I will let those lie however.
You make the same mistakes that the Jews made, that christians today are making, and that many have made down throughout the ages. You assume that God has his designs on this world and this life when he has clearly, oh so clearly stated over and over again that it would be completely destroyed at His second coming! See II Peter 3: "10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." Then by all means, read on!
As well, referring back to the Matthew passage above, you will note that just prior to the Lord Christ's return, the days will revert back as they were in the "Days of Noah". You can only assume what they were like after what few facts are provided in Genesis 6 are taken into consideration. Suffice it to say that evil was rampant, and that was "evil" as defined by God, not by political or "good" man!
While I am no defender of the moral and other judgements of the modern day republican party, quite the contrary on many issues and matters actually, what you suggest in your article Ms. McGinley, will only hasten that which apparently you fear the most. If you possessed a grain of common sense, you'd realize that.
Christians will not stand on their "voting record" once their time in this world ends. Rather, they'll stand on the blood of Christ, and nothing else or less! I would assume that God expects us to apply common sense through all of this and in particular how we vote.
Since your recent history memory is so short, apparently I must remind you that the most damaging president in the history of the nation from those things you say you fear the most, came onto the scene specifically and directly as a result of others taking the exact same stance you are taking here. Clinton had no where near enough votes to win an election in a "two-candidate" election. Nevertheless, thanks to people like you, who seem to have decided and redecided God's will that it is here on earth that where righteousness will reign completely contrary to everything that the Scriptures say.
In fact, how are true Christians to know that you are not simply a 'wolf in sheep's clothing', which quite frankly, appears that it may be the case. In any case, your lacking understanding of Scripture is causing you to push things in exactly the direction that you do not wish to move!
I am under no disillusions as to where this nation is headed, but if a person like Kerry were to become president, I can truly say that to the extent possible, it would be time to move out to the country and be as self-sufficient as possible. Kerry is no different that Bill Clinton would be.
So apply the common sense that God gave a walnut here and realize, quickly I might add, that God is not going to do something simply b/c you or a handful of others, likely many of whom do not even truly know Him, "decide for Him" that he will do!
If this nation were to stop regressing, I'd be fully content. That will not happen at this point, again, being under no illusions here. But what can be altered is the rate of regression. Consider that in your assessment.
In the meantime, I will take God's Word over yours w/o even a thought. I will also not be bullied by people such as you who attempt to challenge my Christianity as if it's directly linked to my voting record when it has nothing to do with it! The battle is won on your knees not in the voting booth! How much time have you spent there Ms. McGinley?!