THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 160, August 30, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GONZALES RESIGNATION EXEMPLIFIES GOP TRAVAILS
By Christopher G. Adamo
WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NEEDS IN ORDER TO WIN CONGRESSIONAL & PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, SET NATIONAL
PUBLIC POLICY, & SUCCESSFULLY RUN THE U.S. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT: UNABASHEDLY CONSERVATIVE
REPUBLICAN LEADERS WHO CAN & WILL SEIZE THE MOMENT, OPERATE AS A PARTY LEADERSHIP TEAM, & EARN SOLID
REPUTATIONS AS TRUE DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL INTERESTS ABROAD & THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF
GOVERNMENT AT HOME, INCLUDING CONSTITUTIONALISM, LIMITED GOVERNMENT, THE RULE OF LAW, REPRESENTATIVE
SELF-GOVERNMENT, INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, & PRIVATE ENTERPRISE CAPITALISM -- REPUBLICAN-LED GOVERNMENT AS AN
UNAMBIGUOUS & INTELLECTUALLY HONEST OPERATION THAT IS CONSTRAINED IN ITS ACTIONS BY THE U.S.
CONSTITUTION & THAT THEREBY UPHOLDS THE INTEGRITY & LEGITIMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE NATION FOR
WHICH IT WAS DESIGNED, & THE GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM WHICH IT UNDERGIRDS -- ALL REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS
COMMITTED TO TOTAL VICTORY IN THE WAR AGAINST GLOBAL ISLAMIST JIHADISM & TERRORISM & AGAINST POLITICAL
REGIMES THAT AID & ABET OUR ISLAMIST ENEMIES
FULL STORY:
Democratic Party victory dances have not ceased since last year’s elections, and have plainly been invigorated by the
recent resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Yet the party of Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, and
Nancy Pelosi remains in the dark as to any important aspect of where the country needs to go. Consequently, Republican
prospects for the current day as well as in next year’s pivotal elections remain within Republican control.
Unfortunately, too many key Republicans appear as clueless of this situation as they have ever been. The mood of the
American people and the defining issues of the day, even including the Gonzales resignation, bode well for an unabashedly
Conservative party leadership that can seize the moment. Yet Democrats have historically had little reason to fear such a
possibility.
In the wake of the 2006 elections, every Liberal and socalled “Moderate” interest group was asserting its own rationale for
the sea change that resulted. Some, who had been perceived as Conservative, such as former House Majority Leader Dick
Armey, came out of the closet with their anti-Christian biases.
Others offered various explanations for public disillusionment with the GOP, ranging from the prospect of drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the President’s attempts at Social Security reform.
The anti-war/anti-America contingent still asserts, with absolute confidence, that the entire election centered on the U.S.
presence in Iraq. Moreover, their endless repetition of this message eventually generated a mantle of reality, especially
among Beltway insiders. Thus, it would seem that the GOP hopes for a turn-around in 2008 are slim to nil. Yet such thinking
represents the worst example of listening to one’s enemies.
Like the 2006 elections, the downside of the Gonzales resignation need not portend defeat or retreat for Republicans. Rather,
it highlights the pitfalls into which overly congenial and compliant Republicans have often stumbled, and more importantly,
how repeats of such disastrous action can and should be avoided in the future.
First, however, another reality check on the 2006 elections needs to occur. As often as Liberals seek to make the case that
last November’s upset was “all about Iraq,” the truth needs to be retold in order to clear the air. Iraq became the
predominant issue only because Republicans had allowed it to assume that position as the inevitable result of their feckless
accommodation of Democrats on virtually every defining issue of the day.
The “Bridge to Nowhere,” a spawn of Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska’s Republican “porker in Chief,” epitomized
unconscionable contempt for the nation’s resources and finances. More significantly however, it proved that spending
problems are not the sole property of the Democrats. As a result, the subject of “fiscal responsibility,” long a Republican
issue, was taken off the table.
Ditto for amnesty, which has not only been ceaselessly promoted by the President, but has also enjoyed vehement
support from prominent Senate Republicans such as Lindsay Graham and John McCain. National sovereignty, never held
in high regard among Democrats, was likewise not the undisputed territory of Republicans.
In such a vacuum, it is little wonder that Iraq bubbled to the top as a “decisive issue.” Yet, the worst aspect of the situation
was that, with the war not going so well in the latter months of last year, little could be offered from the Conservative base
to defend Republican stances on that or any other issue. Thus was the die cast for the 2006 upset.
Likewise, the entire controversy surrounding the firing of a handful of U.S. Attorneys would surely have played out in a
vastly different manner, had Gonzales previously established a solid reputation as a defender of the U.S. Constitution and
the rule of law.
Instead, Gonzales has voiced his acceptance of the popular Liberal notion of the Constitution as a “living document.” It has
been rightly said that those who claim to regard it as “living” actually believe it to be a dead document, since its original
significance as a charter upon which America was to be built is, in their minds, no longer valid.
Such flawed thinking is particularly alarming, considering how dangerously close Gonzales came to being nominated as a
justice of the United States Supreme Court. If his concept of the Constitution were taken to its logical end, the Supreme
Court would possess absolute authority over the very nature of American law. No other legislating or governing body
would even be necessary.
Consequently, as news of the U.S. Attorneys controversy mushroomed, and Liberals began sharpening their knives and
spewing their venom, Gonzales became inordinately vulnerable. While he clearly has enemies on the political Left, his
biggest problem was that, as a result of major positions he has taken, he was left with few defenders on the political Right.
Even now, any Conservative defense of Gonzales as being legally innocent and a victim of contrived accusations must be
accompanied by an obligatory disclaimer, disassociating the defense with objectionable issues such as his abominable
immigration philosophy. This manner of restricted and limited support appears tepid and insignificant in the face of the
fierce and brutal onslaught on the part of Liberal ideologues and Democratic Party politicians.
In the Justice Department, as with the rest of the government, an unambiguous and intellectually honest operation,
constrained by the boundaries imposed by the Constitution, is not only the best way to conduct business, it is the only
legal and proper way. Thus is the integrity of that document, and the nation it undergirds, upheld.
This should be the unmistakable message believed and advanced by all Republican officeholders and aspiring candidates.
For such people and principles, Conservatives can and will fight the good fight.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition:
Elections, PACs, & Political Parties
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
U.S. Constitutional Law & Political Philosophy
The Constitution of the United States of America
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, & Other Leftists
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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