Checklist for use by Americans making one of the most important decisions of their political lives

A Conservative Voter’s Scorecard

- Daren Jonescu Monday, January 2, 2012

The Republican Party has finally arrived at the moment when all the Establishment’s efforts to rig the nominating process in favor of business as usual—in favor of itself—must take a back seat to actual human beings, the voters, who at last get to have their say. And, much to the chagrin of the powers that be, the period during which the voices of voting citizens can make their own case for or against the status quo lasts much longer than the manipulators would have one believe.

Iowa is not decisive. New Hampshire is not decisive. None of the early states will be decisive. History shows that all sorts of things can happen after the first two, four, or even ten states, to turn a supposed tide around. (See examples here.)

In order for American conservatives—by whom I mean those who regard the U.S. Constitution not as a quaint but antiquated historical document, but rather as a peak in the history of man’s effort to define human freedom in practical terms—to make the best decision for the future of their country, they must make every effort to cut through the haze of hyperbole from the various sub-camps that collectively comprise today’s Washington Establishment.

Up to this point, it was perhaps natural to focus on the negative, i.e. to take on the Establishment’s template directly, and to debunk it. But rational criticism, valuable as it is in the face of the mass manipulations of a power-lustful cadre of moneyed interests and their intellectual lapdogs, is never enough. It is not enough to know that something is wrong, or even to know why it is wrong. One must have a clear and forward-looking sense of what is right, and how to achieve it.

With this fact in mind, I humbly offer the following checklist for use by Americans making one of the most important decisions of their political lives. Think of it as a tool for weighing the candidates against one another, or a conservative’s wish list against which real and flawed humans can be judged. For each issue, think about which candidates, in your opinion, measure up to the challenge that the issue presents, in a manner worthy of the gravity of this moment in history. Weigh the issues themselves according to your own priorities, assign points, whatever you like. But consider that none of these issues can be ignored by a voter looking for a candidate who is to have any chance of leading America out of its present existential crisis, and onto a path that just might, with luck and tremendous diligence, avert a final collapse.

1. Does the candidate (hereafter “C”) understand the seriousness of America’s financial crisis? All Republicans say that spending is out of control, and that taxes are too high. What is needed, however, is someone who is not merely rehashing the party platform of the past hundred years, but who actually speaks to the extraordinary urgency of the current situation; who understands, and is willing to say without qualification, that the coffers are empty, not just today, but for the foreseeable future, and that massive and painful spending cuts, undertaken immediately—and beginning with no budgetary sacred cows—are the only way to stave off a societal catastrophe that would make Greece look like Shangri-La.

2. Does C understand the significant national security threat entailed in allowing an ever-growing, irredeemable debt to be parceled out to Chinese dictators, thus giving said dictators extraordinary leverage in any potential diplomatic dispute (e.g. Taiwan), not to mention interest payments that are, in effect, support payments to the Chinese government and military?

3. Does C have a proven track record of standing up against ruinous fiscal policy, against the U.S. Treasury Department, and, of equal importance in the present climate, against a Republican Establishment which endlessly proves itself unwilling to resist the siren song of cronyism and deficit-laden power-brokering? Or does C display the forked tongue of a conservatism of convenience which is trotted out occasionally to impress the base, only to be buried in the bottom drawer once behind closed doors? That is to say, do you think of C as someone who, rhetoric aside, is prone to vote with today’s party brass, or against it, on major economic policy questions?

4. Does C understand what the Obamacare debate is really about? Every candidate claims to want to repeal the health care law. The question is, why? Obamacare is not just bad policy. It is a pivotal event in the history of the United States—the turn of the ratchet whereby, once and for all, the American principle of individual liberty will be put to bed. If government-run health care is allowed to proceed, the matter of individual rights will no longer even be on the table in future legislative debates. As I have explained in detail here, the principle at stake is much greater than a question of how to provide the best or most affordable health care; even the individual mandate is relatively small potatoes. The question is, “Do Americans have a constitutionally protected right to life?” If the government determines how, when, and under what conditions, your body will be preserved, then you belong to the state, pure and simple.

A candidate who does not grasp how fundamental an issue this is, cannot possibly lead the charge to destroy Obamacare on the necessary moral and constitutional grounds. So I restate the question: Does C understand that the Obamacare debate is, at its heart, an individual rights issue? Or has C shown a lack of basic understanding of the principle involved, perhaps even supporting one or another aspect of government-run health care over the years, on the usual grounds that it creates greater efficiency, solves a health care “problem,” etc?

5. Where does C stand on anthropogenic global climate change? The time when one could be forgiven on this issue on grounds of “insufficient information” is long past. Given what is widely known—and has been for years (An Inconvenient Truth was being thoroughly debunked in 2006)—about the science, the history, the advocates, and the advocates’ purposes and proposals on this issue, any public figure who, when asked about it, jumps on the globalist bandwagon (or sofa), or puts on the elevated, pinched tone of the obfuscating agnostic, is not a constitutional conservative.

6. Does C have a sufficient grasp of the international threat of Islamic radicalism? Does C understand that this is not just an “Israel” issue, but rather that global jihad, which is not restricted to al-Qaeda, is a broader mindset gaining a foothold in many European and African nations? Does C acknowledge the reality of this spreading threat, and its ancient cultural roots? Or does C believe that the Islamists are exclusively mad at America, because America has been mean to them, and has supported Israel?

7. Does C believe that America, warts, missteps and all, has essentially been the good guy in global developments? Or does C agree with jihadists, European intellectuals, and the American Left that America has long been an imperialist bully, and thus the cause of most of its own national security problems?