The Political Coalition: Principles not Politics

By John Sykes

For quite some time I have been spouting “Principles not Politics! It does look like our guys in DC may be falling into the trap of going along to get along which is just going to result in another “big tent” fiasco. The halls of DC are beginning to resound with whimpers of compromise which the GOP seems to most often lose even when trying to face down the most anti-democratic President in memory. Just any program isn’t going to work.

By Michael Walsh, tongue-in-cheek Democrat, in an over-the-top but very enjoyable book, Rules for Radical Conservatives:

Hey, Dumbo—“programs” are our thing. Our candidates churn out books on “programs” all the time. They answer endless rounds of questions about “programs,” helpfully posed by our plants in the media. In fact, we’ve made it seem that running for President or any other higher office is all about having the most ten- point plans, or five- year plans, or whatever. But what would you expect from a party that reveres FDR, but really hankers after the cultural revolutions and thousand- year plans that big- time statists of the past century so proudly hailed? We’ve got a “program” or a “plan” for everything, and you chumps have accepted the idiotic notion that one can plan further out than, say, five minutes (no wonder you’ve bought into the farce of “global warming”). Whereas those real military men you ought to be recruiting understand, like football coaches, the first rule of plans: that they go out the window the minute the first shot is fired. After which you rely upon the wisdom and guts of your commanders and the courage, training, and discipline of your troops to see you through to victory.

How much simpler can you get? Plans fail far more often that they succeed. Plans without principled foundations will do even worse.

Walsh goes on:

Principles are what counts. So stop trying to outdo us by rushing to the microphones with a silly plan to solve every social ill this side of halitosis whenever our pet frogs in the media croak about a new “crisis” in the daily news feed. In fact, forget about programs completely. Just say no! And if we call you out and demand to know—which we will, you can bet on that, it’s part of the playbook—the details of your “plan,” laugh and tell them to shove it and start talking about principles.

Walsh, again tongue-in-cheek Democrat, adds:

To do otherwise is to accept our premises, which means you have already lost. Instead, stick to the big picture: liberty, self- reliance, faith, freedom. Those concepts are to us like a crucifix to a vampire, but heed not our squeals. Instead, keep brandishing your integrity and have the satisfaction of watching us collapse, writhing, on the floor into a puddle of putrescent malefaction, just like Christopher Lee in all those great Hammer movies.

Leaders not Compromisers!

Principles not Politics!

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