Not Peace, But a Sword [advice to "Bad Republicans"]

President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war, and he aims to leverage that victory to force a transformation of the Republican party. In a New Republic interview published earlier this week, he noted that attitudes are changing “in the country as a whole around LGBT issues and same-sex marriage” and that this poses a challenge to Republicans. Some Republicans will “embrace” the change, but “there’s a big chunk of their constituency that is going to be deeply opposed to that.”

Unity is the president’s preferred weapon to divide and conquer. As he stated in his inaugural address, “Now more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.” He co-opted the first words of the U.S. Constitution to give a constitutional seal of approval to his policy agenda. “We the people” have spoken, and it turns out We pretty much agree with the president on everything. We the People are certainly as enlightened as the president about a woman’s right to abortion and the rightness of gay marriage. The constitutional standing of those who think differently from We the People is fuzzy.

Good Republicans who conform to current trends are part of the one nation. Bad Republicans will find themselves out in the cold. Judged by Obama’s alliterative story of American equality (Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall), Bad Republicans might even be un-American.

Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” is premature. The abortion rate is at an almost forty-year low, and dozens of states have passed restrictions on abortion over the last two years. Gay marriage is gaining ground, but a majority of state constitutions prohibit same-sex marriage. But Obama’s assessment isn’t delusional. Norms have shifted, and the range of behavior that Americans are prepared to tolerate seems infinitely elastic. As much as he is able, Obama has been using the power of the presidency to entrench his progressive views. If his promotion of social liberalism splits the Republican party, well, he won’t shed any tears.

Obama appears confident he can enlist Good Republicans to help him purge the GOP. It’s a clever ploy, and I think it will work. Good Republicans already think that Bad Republicans lose elections, and they will be increasingly embarrassed by rambunctious Republicans who won’t stop talking about abortion, homosexuality, the vulgarity of popular culture, or women in combat. It’ll be only too easy to convince Good Republicans to nudge Bad Republicans to catch up with We the People or get out of the way.

The more subtle possibility is that Bad Republicans themselves will be drawn into the president’s purge. Everyone knows who that problematic “chunk” is: Bad Republicans are the remnants of the religious right, and the next four years are going to be uncomfortable ones for those of us who consider sodomy and abortion to be sinful. Nobody likes to be marginalized. No American likes to be branded as intolerant. Marginalization is especially galling to those on the religious right who so long ago rode the high places of the earth.

Christians, besides, have an instinct toward unity. We confess that God is love, and the second great commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love is not tolerance, but in our age Christians confuse the two as readily as anyone. Christian activists want to be peacemakers, to heal the breach, to fill the gap, to ease tensions. But in the current climate, the only way to do that is to move closer to what Obama claims is the mainstream of American culture.

My advice to Bad Republicans is: Let it come. If the price of regaining power is to abandon any semblance of Christian sexual morality, the price is too high. If the Republican party can’t bring itself to endorse a traditional understanding of marriage, let it split. If the Republican party can’t be bothered about the slaughter of the unborn, let it shatter into a million little pieces. Good Republicans will blame Bad Republicans for tearing the GOP to pieces. So be it.

One might hope for better. One might hope that shrewd and principled leadership from a courageous few would re-galvanize the Republican party on social issues. That might not provide a path to power, but it would turn the GOP into a genuine alternative to social liberalism. One hopes; anything can happen. I think it more likely that Obama will get his way and leave the Republican party in greater disarray than ever.

There is a time for peace, but in my judgment we’re not in such times. For the next four years, perhaps longer, social-issue Christians must recognize that smoothing differences is a temptation, and must learn to resist the temptation. Christians have to be willing to follow the example of Jesus, who came not to unify but to divide father from son, mother from daughter, brother from brother. Division was essential to the social renewal he came to accomplish, because those who followed him, torn from comfortable networks of kin and religion, formed the nucleus of a new kind of community. For Jesus, division was the means for achieving a new unity. Christians have to be willing to imitate the Prince of Peace who declared, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Okay, here we go.

Communism is a one-party system. No opposition party is allowed; actually no opposition is allowed. Look to Russia, China, North Korea - the common factor is rule by ONE PARTY. One party rule is characteristic of totalitarian governments.

The strength of America, contrary to rule by Obama, lies in a two party system where the majority party is in charge and the minority party remains in place to keep the lead party honest. To do this took a free/fair press. Obama admits he wants a one party system. He wants the conservatives destroyed. Hate mongering will become the order of the day by the team that is already the master of the smear.

We are already failing the American process. Americans better wake up because there is a take-over underway and it is taking America into communism.

President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war, and he aims to leverage that victory to force a transformation of the Republican party.

Obama has learned the formula to split the republicans.
The last few elections 06, 08, 10, 12 we have seen reports of a republican congressman texting lewd messages to male pages. Then it was a senator foot tapping in the stalls at an airport, in 2010 Ensign was tramping around and Delay was violating rules. In 2012 Romney's mormonism was more important than Obama's incompetence.

The religious right will stay home at the slightest hint of impropriety. Obama's people are experts at finding and holding these scandals until just before the election, while at the same time holding their scandals until just after the election.

The religious right looks to be Obama's main target. Birth control, gay marriages, gays in the military, etc. are directed at destroying the social fabric of the country. Religion is the foundation of our society and it seems like the religious right would prefer to stay out of it lest they get their hands dirty.

Let the sp-called moderates, who want to be tolerant joint he democrat party. At least we’d know who was who. Let he republicans return to the staunchly pro-life, pro-family, God and country party we once were and it will grow, as people see the difference. Otherwise, it is time RIGHT NOW to form a party of conservatives only. We need a coalition of people who agree to basic moral values and the liberty that God bestowed upon us from the beginning, that it is not a license to sin, but to live responsibly.

Let the elitists go their way. We do not need Carl Rove, or any of the organizers used this past election cycle. They failed every single republican candidate.

I don't agree with all your points, but your analysis is a good one.

I think the objective is "demoralization" of the Right, depressing their will to turn out and vote. It certainly worked against Bush and the GOP in 2006 (Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi's most important subtheme that year was "Republican scandals and corruption; Mark Foley was outed by HomoDemocrats that year in a clear voter-suppression ploy), and it arguably worked in 2008 and 2012.

No doubt about where Obama's going; he's been displaying the mark of the dictator, as my late father called it (talking about Mussolini's speaking style, which Castro shared), since 2008. His arrogance, contempt, and hatred is on full display now. He barely takes trouble to conceal it.

Thanks rhema.

In a New Republic interview published earlier this week, he noted that attitudes are changing "in the country as a whole around LGBT issues and same-sex marriage" and that this poses a challenge to Republicans. Some Republicans will "embrace" the change, but "there’s a big chunk of their constituency that is going to be deeply opposed to that."

Hmm, sounds familiar.

...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said. [Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance]

"Uhhhh, that's not part of my campaign"--Myth Romney

"The Idiot, thought to its logical conclusion, leads to a matriarchy of the unconscious and annihilates culture. It does not break the tables of the law, it reverses them and shows their opposites written on the back."
--Thoughts on The Idiot, by Dostoevsky
--Hermann Hesse, 1919
http://www.gss.ucsb.edu/projects/hesse/works/idiot.pdf

"What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.

The first stage being "demoralization".

It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism."

--KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov

--Soviet Subversion of the Free Press (Ideological subversion, Destabilization, CRISIS - and the KGB)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2095202/posts

Are we there yet?
"The [my] only connection [to the Republican Party]is I'm registered as a Republican" --Mitt RRRRRomney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbXdOCQQMs

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