Some weeks ago I listened to a conversation between Dr. James Dobson and Sean Hanity on the Sean Hanity Radio Show. The debate was over Dr. Dobson's revelation that he would not be able to endorse Rudy Giuliani if he became the Republican candidate for president. Sean Hanity argued the point that Giuliani would be a better person to preserve our conservative principles than Hillary Clinton or Barrak Obama and Dr. Dobson's refusal to support Giuliani would mean a Clinton presidency. Hanity's argument was that even though Dr. Dobson had serious objections to Giuliani's moral record he should still support him because the alternative would be worse.
Listening to Sean Hanity's arguments proved to me that it wasn't James Dobson that didn't get it; it was Sean Hanity that doesn't get it! As a matter of fact, I have come to realize that the entire Republican Party doesn't get it! The Republican Party has forgotten that the conservative philosophies that make up the foundation of our party are anchored in the moral principles that this nation was founded upon and if you abandon that moral foundation it will be impossible to maintain our conservative principles in the long term. Already many Republicans are not looking for the candidate that best upholds our conservative principles instead they are looking for the person they think has the best chance of beating Hillary or Obama in November. I have already heard the argument that we Republicans are going to have to compromise some of our ardent moral principles if we are going to be able to compete in future elections. Many Republicans believe that it is worth giving up on abortion and homosexual issues in exchange for conservative economic and political issues. My question is, if we do abandon our moral principles in exchange for a more conservative secular agenda, what will we have? How will a non-moral Republican president be any different than a non-moral Democrat president?
If you look back at the Clinton presidency you will see that when it came to the economy and foreign relations our country actually grew both economically and politically on his watch. You are going to hear a lot in the general election about what a great president Bill Clinton was and how much good he did for our nation during his term. What you are not going to hear however is how much moral decay we experienced during his 8 years in office. Today, oral sex is not considered sex by most adolescents that are already becoming sexually active in their pre-teen years. Another contribution of Bill Clinton presidency is that now it doesn't matter what our president does in his personal life as long as he does a good job. The killing of innocent babies gained so much ground during his term that the chances of turning the Roe verses Wade decision is now become an insurmountable task. And I can go on and on about the moral decay of our nation, homes, children, and churches since Bill Clinton became president.
To underestimate the power of the president to influence morality in our nation is to make a life altering mistake and to think that we can maintain our conservative values apart from morality is an equally life altering mistake.
George Washington warned in his farewell address that "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that we can maintain our national morality without almighty God and His Holy Bible". What Sean Hanity and the Republican machine can't seem to wrap their brain around is that the lack of morality will destroy our conservative principles and if you are paying attention, has already destroyed a good portion of those principles. What James Dobson was trying to get Sean to see was that even though Rudy Giuliani looked like a better candidate than Hillary Clinton, in reality they were the same. If we are to have any hope of maintaining our conservative Republican principles then we must make up our mind and insist on a candidate that will uphold the moral principles our nation was founded upon in word and deed.
In 1787, when the Constitutional Convention had come to a place where it appeared that no agreement could be reached between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist, Benjamin Franklin rose and reminded those in attendance "….In the beginning of the conflict with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had prayers in this very room for divine protection, our prayers were heard and graciously answered. All of us engaged in this struggle experienced frequent instances of a super-intending providence in our favor. Have we now forgotten this powerful friend, or do we now imagine that we no longer need His assistance…." I believe that Republicans need to revisit Mr. Franklin's reminder and challenge and realize that without morality our conservative principles that we hold so near and dear will be lost forever.
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Comments: 13
See if anything I say makes sense. While yelling about how horrible the Clinton adminstration was for his two terms and how dishonest the republcans joined his ranks and showed they could be just as immoral. That, dear friend, is where the tragic mistake lies. Examples are one of the very best ways to teach others what is good about you yet during the entire time of this administration they were on a rampage against anyone who disagreed with them. Did they forget if one shows and acts with integrity it will be seen by many? Did they forget that when one steps out of line that person should be punished and not have ranks closed around him to pretect him no matter how horrible his crime? There is one of the most glaring problems republicans had apparently without recognizing it. My demeanor slid down like a clown taking off his make up as I watched the immorality of not only the leaders of the republicans but so many of its members. How does one promote morality while acting in such an immoral way? That is impossible. All the while republicans were trying to sell the horrors of the past administration they were committing similar acts but I guess by the nature of them being republicans they refused to notice their acts of horror. Lets skip over the obvious arguments about WMDs and go directly to the invasion. How moral is it to pretend you are not aware of the lack of equipment for those fighting on your behalf? How moral is it to do many underhanded actions while trying to keep those actions below the media radar like building airbases and now a palatial embassy in Iraq? How moral is it to show obvious favoritism for your buddies and their associates in aquiring contracts paying extremely good money yet not respondng when they fail to perform.
I fully grasp the argument presented that certain immoral gains took hold on Clinton's but a blind man can see the republicans did nothing realistic to conteract it. They took it to another level. With the opportunity to show leadership in the platform so often talked about they tossed it the window. Every conservative fiscal avenue has been abused by this adminstration. Many of the basic moral principles of man were abused by this adminstration yet I am still hearing complaints about Clinton's presidency. The republicans failed big time their own so called principals. They spent monsy like a ship load of drunken sailors with little benefit to the working stiffs they propose to serve.
Quote:
"To underestimate the power of the president to influence morality in our nation is to make a life altering mistake and to think that we can maintain our conservative values apart from morality is an equally life altering mistake."
I am a Republican because they have traditionally stood for the conservative values that I hold dear. The point of my article was to call attention to the fact that those values are being abandoned by the Republican party.
Still, it is the end of time. I know that evil must come to it's fullness so that God can justly destroy the earth which now is. Because of this, I never expect too much from any politicians.
No my friend my expreience is just the opposite. Liberal talk radio in this area has been fought by conservatives for ages "because " of the issues many of us talk about. What I have found is a constant parroting by conservatives of the sound bites they hear from those conservative talk show host. I had a similar comment by someone I used to fully respect but who fell into that repetitive mode of response which told me nothing about any issue. To make my point clear I bet a meal that if we talked to any number of so called conservatives the couldn't "explain" intelligently any issue of that time. We went to the bus stops and metro platforms downtown as offices were closing and spoke to numbers of people whose intial respnse was that they favored a conservative view. Just like a recordng we heard repeated as if on cue a constant drone of family values, patriotism, fiscal responsibilty and GWB was God sent. However none could put family values into any meaningful dialog. None could explain with the least intelligence how GWB had made things better for them and not one made sense of allowing the lost of some rights in exchange for a feeling of security. I didn't even have to bring up the fact that the adminstration had passed a drug bill (Medicare Part D) which forbade the goverment from negotiating for better prices for its citizens. The vast majority of those so called conservatives had simply learned what had been sold to them as good and repeated those issues but had no personal knowledge of them. One fella stood out like a sore thumb in his fast and loud explanations of a number of issues. Dare I say he was not a conservative?
Every station which carried the least of a liberal program has been fought tooth and nail. I can tell you from my experience most conservatives I am aware of live in a fogged one diminsional negative cell. They hold fast to one issue if any at all. Most liberals I am aware of talk intelligently about real issues. Illegal imigration, job status, education, the housing market, etc and they don't try to, as a rule, yell down the person epressing a different view.
We agree totally on this. :)
Vickie, I think that is our fault not the politicians. For too long we have allowed our representatives to do what they pleased without us demanding anything of them. Sure, on occasion we raise our voices enough for them to hear us but once the fervor has died down e go back to sleepor lose our memories and the go back to business as usual.
my morals are most definitely different than yours.
and if you mean the bible's morals... why the bible's morals?
because this is a christian nation?
is it? i thought this was a democracy, you know, the land of the free... where i could practice and worship whoever and however i wanted.
to impose your "christian morals" nationally is to force me to accept your religion, which i don't.
"My question is, if we do abandon our moral principles in exchange for a more conservative secular agenda, what will we have?"
we will have democracy- not theocracy.
The quote that you attribute to George Washington is nowhere to be found in Washington's farewell address. The link below contains the full text of his farewell address:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm
If you read the address, you will see that there are exactly ZERO references to the bible, and that the words "God," "holy" and "bible" appear nowhere in the address. Incidentally, also absent from the address are any references to Christ or Christianity, which would be startling if Washington were a devout Christian (as you seem to be implying), but not at all surprising given he was probably a Deist.
As for the Constitutional Convention, it is interesting that you do not mention what happened to Benjamin Franklin's motion to start the deliberations each day with a prayer, which Franklin (a self-described Deist) made at one point when the delegates seemed deadlocked. I guess the other delegates did not find Franklin's words very persuasive, because the motion did not pass, and it was not even voted on. According to Franklin's handwritten notes on the reaction to his motion: "The Convention, except three or four persons, thought Prayers unnecessary." Sounds like a REALLY devoutly religious bunch to me. [sarcasm]
The truly tragic mistake that the Republican Party has made is that it has become the party of theocracy. In doing so, it has betrayed the actual moral principle on which our nation was founded ie that government's proper role is limited to securing the individual rights and freedom of its citizens (including freedom from religious tyranny).
A freer country than we pretend to have now.