Official mascot of the Republican Party
Posted on 02/21/2014 7:30:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Politics is often like war. Unfortunately, politicians, the media, and the voting public seldom have the same degree of realism and discipline with which professional soldiers fight wars. You can indulge your emotions and base your decisions on wishful thinking in politics in a way that you are not likely to when your own life is on the line in battle.
One of the most dramatic and heartening events of World War II was the miraculous evacuation of British troops trapped on the beaches of France in 1940, at Dunkirk. And its lesson is still relevant today.
The British troops were in France to help the French fight off the invading army from Nazi Germany. But the sudden collapse of the French army left the Brits stranded on the beaches, with the German army closing in on them.
The British navy’s ships in the area were too large to move into the shallow waters close to the beaches so as to evacuate the troops. Instead, hundreds of British civilians headed for Dunkirk in their fishing boats, recreational craft, and practically anything else that would float.
These civilians, who risked their lives going into a war zone, helped nearly a hundred thousand British soldiers get back home across the English Channel.
How does this tie in with politics, especially with politics today?
Many Republicans wanted their party to fight the Obama administration before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling, in hopes of extracting at least some concession — on spending, on the Keystone pipeline, or whatever.
Unfortunately, the Republicans had no more chance of winning that fight than the stranded British troops had of winning a battle against Hitler’s army.
Whatever the Republicans threatened, President Obama could call their bluff. They would either have to back down or have a second government shutdown for which they would be blamed. Another shutdown could doom their chances of winning the Senate in the 2014 elections, and perhaps even cost them the House of Representatives.
In a war, you do not fight battles that you are certain to lose, if only because you will need your troops to fight later in battles you can win. The British troops who escaped from Dunkirk came back to France four years later, as part of the massive invasion forces that stormed the beaches at Normandy, liberated France, and pushed on into Germany for the final defeat of the Nazi regime.
In politics, as in war, you need power to win, and you don’t dissipate your forces fighting battles that you are sure to lose. Symbolism and emotional self-indulgence are just not worth it.
None of this says that the Republicans’ leadership had a great track record prior to the most recent confrontations with the Democrats. For that matter, the British government had a terrible track record in the years leading up to the desperate situation on the beaches at Dunkirk. But that was no reason to sacrifice troops who would be urgently needed for later battles, where the odds would be different.
There would not be a United States of America today if George Washington had followed the tactics being urged by people like Senator Ted Cruz and his supporters. The army under General Washington was no match for the British army, in either military experience or firepower. The American army repeatedly had to withdraw, retreat, and even flee to avoid being annihilated. George Washington did not have to fight futile battles in order to prove his courage. He was already well known for being in the thick of battles, with bullets whistling around his head. But he had to wait for situations where he had the enemy at a disadvantage, and then strike.
When Washington made his celebrated crossing of the Delaware, he was headed for a dramatic victory, using soldiers he had saved for just such a moment. Wars are about winning, not futile symbolic gestures that leave you worse off. Politics must be the same, if you are serious about the issues.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
The GOPe and their THOMAS SOWELL apologists aren’t into the politics of principle; they are into “what’s the least thing I can do and still maintain my featherbed.”
Jenk is a Michigan FReeper.
GREAT ANALOGY!!!
Ted Cruz knows he cannot depend on establishment GOP members to have his back.
He needs us, citizens of the Republic, to stand up and help him in this battle against bigger government.
Bump To The Top
Thomas Sowell is 83. Perhaps dementia and some money under the table has something to do with this.
Battles of attrition lead to winning a WAR.
As Senator Cruz says: “You lose 100 % of the battles that you do not fight.”
If the GOP did not support Obama and the Democrats you would be correct.
What Sowell, Coulter, the WSJ and other establishment supporters fail to recognize is that with the House in republican majority, spending has gone up many trillions, and their blaming Obama is just not adequate.
There simply is no difference between the GOP and the dems in any practical way.
supporting them is just silly
Thomas Sowell has sold out his integrity and conservative credentials to carry the water of the GOPe with his participation in this most recent ORCHESTRATED (see Anne Coulter et al) attack on Ted Cruz.
This most recent campaign is sputtering and unsuccessful and merely degrades the reputations of those carrying the GOPe water. Ted Cruz is handling all this BRILLIANTLY.
I think the 82nd at The Battle of the Bulge is a more appropriate comparison
He's done.
In my view that's a victory even if a dhimmi wins that seat.
I'm tried of forever fighting a rearguard action; let's minimize our losses so we can surrender again tomorrow is not a rallying cry to our troups.
At some point we stand firm and say this far and no f!ckin' further!
Don’t worry about Cruz. If Mc Connell is Majority Leader next January, Senator Cruz might get a seat on the Public Sewer Committee.
I can see Mr. Sowell’s point but I get the queasy feeling that the GOP has no stomach for a fight, ever. What will be their excuse when the GOP holds both houses of Congress? That they still can’t win because Obama stands in the way? And then if a Republican is put in the WH in 2016 what will they say? That the Democrats are filibustering everything in the Senate and there is nothing they can do?
I just want to know WHEN will the time to fight come?
Frtunately for Politicians, they don’t have to give up their life for their causes. If they did, most of them would run like hell.
Sowell says that “Symbolism and emotional self-indulgence are just not worth it.”
Wrong! Symbolism usually is worth it! If the GOP will not show why it is different from the democrats, why should anyone vote GOP?
And I do not consider Cruz's stance to be self-indulgent. It was done as a matter of principle. What I do consider to be self-indulgent is Sowell’s rambling attempt to teach us some sort of history lesson.
Thomas Sowell who I deeply respect is simply off his meds on this one.
Thomas Sowell has jumped the shark, sad.
So we must have endless and increasing debt or else we will lose? That is the defeat. That is national bankruptcy. We are bankrupt, and the Senate voted to make us more bankrupt.
There is no reason to believe that the GOP, if it takes the Senate, is going to reverse the debt trend. The GOP helped bankrupt us.
Cruz is not trying get power for the GOP. He is trying to save our nation, and that means fighting all the time, not hiding. There is no English Channel and Royal Navy to protect us from going deeper into bankruptcy.
My only problem with Cruz is he appears to support an interventionist foreign policy, which would also make us more bankrupt and throw more lives away.
Official mascot of the Republican Party
This is politics, not war, not even litigation. Picking a side and vigourously advocating it, even if you KNOW you are going to lose, is not unusual at all, in politics.
Everyone needs to understand that this party just does not believe in the same thing we do - they have far more in common with the democrats.
re: You can’t afford to fight the battles you know you’ll lose.
BUT sometimes you NEED to fight those battles. I could argue there would not be a Ted Cruz without the losing Battle of the Alamo. A battle that did not have to be fought.
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