From Rich Lowry (editor of National Review) to Norman Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute), conservatives cry out for “message that resonates with young people and minorities.”
Hogwash.
Barack Obama won the election because, given the choice of two vacuous and banal “messages,” voters went with the more interesting one.
Blaming conservatism, Reagan, Christians, and clingers for the 2008 election results betrays a kind of ignorance for which non-profits raise funds to cure. Obama may have concealed what he stands for (and many who voted for him would not have voted for him had they known his true self), but he clearly stood for something. McCain’s problem was his history of compromise. Everyone knows–and I mean everyone–that people with convictions and who believe truth be on their side won’t compromise. Obama won’t compromise, except on the false promises he made during the campaign. McCain will compromise on anything [Althouse]. (H/T GayPatriot)
We are conservatives, not marketers. We sell the truth which we believe to be self-evident and God-given. We believe that all power, all rights, all decisions descend from God to individual human beings. We believe that men invent governments to discharge certain of our needs, the way some people hire “landscapers” to mow their lawns. We believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed and that the governed may rescind powers previously granted to government. In short, we believe man is a weak being that government, which is man’s flawed and broken creation, is even weaker. If a determined and resourceful and free man cannot achieve some noble ambition, then government doesn’t stand a chance.
If young people and minorities can’t deal with these truths now, let them live through 4 years of socialist created privation, rancor, and slavery: they’ll embrace our values in 2012.
The most destructive path for conservatism is to listen to people who want us to act like liberals. In fact, behaving as liberals is exactly what brought us to this long, cold night.
If our message, articulated consistently since the Revolution, is wrong today, then it was always wrong and always will be. If that’s the case, we are morally obliged to refute conservatism and to worship Obama and big government. Those who want to speak like liberals but govern like conservatives are frauds: they should shamed and humiliated.
If our message is right, then its truths will be self-evident. Glossing over the splendor and duty of conservatism, hiding its inherent risks and rewards, fools no one–certainly not the young, who don’t trust their seniors, nor minorities, who’ve been lied to for centuries.
With the truth on our side, with the power and the freedom and the wisdom God and the Founding Fathers have given us, we need no facades. We need only shout the truth from the highest mountain: “We KNOW the way! We Know the path! We know the secret of the pursuit of Happiness and good government. We are God’s children and if the fish in the stream and the deer in the wood have the power to live their lives and pass on life to the next generation, then how infinitely more able are WE to live our OWN lives, to make our OWN decisions, to create a better world for ourselves and our posterity?”
A message for the young and minorities? We’ve always had it. Now, let’s get about preaching it.
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