by Robert Heiler
Conventional wisdom insists that moves within a political party of the Big Tent variety are inherently, on the level of policy or doctrine, weakening, conciliatory, or indicative of appeasement. Expressions of this characterization of the Party of Yes effort can be expected to range from allegations of doctrinal heresy to outright charges of full-spectrum RINOism.
Like most conventional wisdom, this insistence will be strident, occasionally persuasive, and entirely wrong.
One of the main reasons that the GOP needs to host a healthy internal debate about the ways to move America in the proper direction is that such debate has become essentially impossible with Democrats.
The Democratic Party in the post-Obama era is held in such thrall to Leftist "Political Correctness" that its positions are outside the bounds of what was somewhat recently considered the mainstream. The defining characteristic of the Left of the Limousine Liberals is that its nostrums depend, at some level, on fundamental denial of obvious reality.
Rachel Dolezal is black and “Caitlyn” Jenner a woman simply because they say so. “Global warming,” renamed “climate change,” is a dire, urgent threat despite the fact that the globe has, ever-rising carbon dioxide levels notwithstanding, cooled continuously for nearly two decades. It is possible to add 30 million people to the rolls of those with health insurance without adding “a single dime” to the deficit – and if you like your plan and doctor, you can keep them. “Terrorist attacks” must be called “man-caused disasters.” There is not a “smidgen” of corruption at the IRS. A federal minimum wage of $15 per hour will not eliminate jobs. Planned Parenthood is not selling fetal body parts, it is “donating them and receiving compensation for costs incurred.” Saying “All lives matter,” is an act requiring apology and recantation. Iranian mullahs indicating approval of “Death to America” chants do not really mean it, and are worthy negotiating partners. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.
This list could go on. Here is the point: whether the subject is culture, economics, foreign policy, or national defense, much of what the Limousine Liberal agenda advances as thought requires, to use Secretary Clinton’s memorable phrase, the "willing suspension of disbelief." For that reason, the party that is controlled by the Limousine Liberals has become, in many substantive debates, a non-participant. In this way the presidential candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders is political synecdoche. Despite the fact that he was until recently an Independent, he is the perfect symbol of the party he now seeks to lead: a disheveled, constantly outraged irrelevance, muttering paeans to Socialist ideas that have failed always, everywhere, that they have been attempted.
If you doubt this description of current affairs, consider the dedication of the Democrats to "Political Correctness." Then consider this: What, precisely, does the phrase “Politically Correct” indicate? It represents an alternative to simply correct, really correct, obviously correct. It is literally an attempt to define what is "Correct" without recourse to investigation of what is "Actual." If the indications of delusion were any more straightforward than that, proper treatment would require Haldol.
Notwithstanding this disappearance of a loyal opposition, we still have a Republic to run, if we can keep it. That is why the Trumpettes vs. Cruzers vs. Randulans vs. I heart Huckabees, et. al., cage-match has got to stop. It risks handing the keys to the kingdom to people who are literally out of touch with reality.
And so, we have begun this effort known as the Party of Yes. Its purpose is to foster the robust, but respectful debate that a healthy Republic requires, free of the reality-denying distortions of the Limousine Liberals – and also free of the Party they control and the large portion of the mainstream Media that carries their water, massages their feet, and augments their entirely emotional appeal. We seek a discourse on Ideas rather than Personalities, real arguments rather than tarted-up classical fallacies.
If you are committed to restoring the American Dream and this nation’s proper place in world affairs, please join us. We would love to hear your thoughts.
(This is a version of a story - an excellent one! - posted earlier this week in LinkedIn's Pulse by the Party Of Yes effort's new Co-Manager, the distinguished Conservative journalist and theorist, Robert Heiler. EBB)
******************************************************
Link to the Party of YES Group at LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Party-YES-7472991/about
Link to Group manager Ellen Brandt's LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenbbrandtphd
And her Google+ profile:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115282763756107439379/posts/p/pub
Link to the landing page for Bring Back the Meritocracy!, founder Ellen Brandt's project to help the estimated 400 million "Highly-Educated But Under-Employed" in the United States and abroad:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/114091094386273464410/114091094386273464410/about/p/pub
Conventional wisdom insists that moves within a political party of the Big Tent variety are inherently, on the level of policy or doctrine, weakening, conciliatory, or indicative of appeasement. Expressions of this characterization of the Party of Yes effort can be expected to range from allegations of doctrinal heresy to outright charges of full-spectrum RINOism.
Like most conventional wisdom, this insistence will be strident, occasionally persuasive, and entirely wrong.
One of the main reasons that the GOP needs to host a healthy internal debate about the ways to move America in the proper direction is that such debate has become essentially impossible with Democrats.
The Democratic Party in the post-Obama era is held in such thrall to Leftist "Political Correctness" that its positions are outside the bounds of what was somewhat recently considered the mainstream. The defining characteristic of the Left of the Limousine Liberals is that its nostrums depend, at some level, on fundamental denial of obvious reality.
Rachel Dolezal is black and “Caitlyn” Jenner a woman simply because they say so. “Global warming,” renamed “climate change,” is a dire, urgent threat despite the fact that the globe has, ever-rising carbon dioxide levels notwithstanding, cooled continuously for nearly two decades. It is possible to add 30 million people to the rolls of those with health insurance without adding “a single dime” to the deficit – and if you like your plan and doctor, you can keep them. “Terrorist attacks” must be called “man-caused disasters.” There is not a “smidgen” of corruption at the IRS. A federal minimum wage of $15 per hour will not eliminate jobs. Planned Parenthood is not selling fetal body parts, it is “donating them and receiving compensation for costs incurred.” Saying “All lives matter,” is an act requiring apology and recantation. Iranian mullahs indicating approval of “Death to America” chants do not really mean it, and are worthy negotiating partners. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.
This list could go on. Here is the point: whether the subject is culture, economics, foreign policy, or national defense, much of what the Limousine Liberal agenda advances as thought requires, to use Secretary Clinton’s memorable phrase, the "willing suspension of disbelief." For that reason, the party that is controlled by the Limousine Liberals has become, in many substantive debates, a non-participant. In this way the presidential candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders is political synecdoche. Despite the fact that he was until recently an Independent, he is the perfect symbol of the party he now seeks to lead: a disheveled, constantly outraged irrelevance, muttering paeans to Socialist ideas that have failed always, everywhere, that they have been attempted.
If you doubt this description of current affairs, consider the dedication of the Democrats to "Political Correctness." Then consider this: What, precisely, does the phrase “Politically Correct” indicate? It represents an alternative to simply correct, really correct, obviously correct. It is literally an attempt to define what is "Correct" without recourse to investigation of what is "Actual." If the indications of delusion were any more straightforward than that, proper treatment would require Haldol.
Notwithstanding this disappearance of a loyal opposition, we still have a Republic to run, if we can keep it. That is why the Trumpettes vs. Cruzers vs. Randulans vs. I heart Huckabees, et. al., cage-match has got to stop. It risks handing the keys to the kingdom to people who are literally out of touch with reality.
And so, we have begun this effort known as the Party of Yes. Its purpose is to foster the robust, but respectful debate that a healthy Republic requires, free of the reality-denying distortions of the Limousine Liberals – and also free of the Party they control and the large portion of the mainstream Media that carries their water, massages their feet, and augments their entirely emotional appeal. We seek a discourse on Ideas rather than Personalities, real arguments rather than tarted-up classical fallacies.
If you are committed to restoring the American Dream and this nation’s proper place in world affairs, please join us. We would love to hear your thoughts.
(This is a version of a story - an excellent one! - posted earlier this week in LinkedIn's Pulse by the Party Of Yes effort's new Co-Manager, the distinguished Conservative journalist and theorist, Robert Heiler. EBB)
******************************************************
Link to the Party of YES Group at LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Party-YES-7472991/about
Link to Group manager Ellen Brandt's LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenbbrandtphd
And her Google+ profile:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115282763756107439379/posts/p/pub
Link to the landing page for Bring Back the Meritocracy!, founder Ellen Brandt's project to help the estimated 400 million "Highly-Educated But Under-Employed" in the United States and abroad:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/114091094386273464410/114091094386273464410/about/p/pub
