Stand Your Ground

By Helen Valois
Alan Keyes Deputy Grassroots Coordinator

 

“You’ve convinced me that you are going to help put Hillary Clinton
or Barack Obama in the White House.”

 

This is how a friend of mine tried to wrap up a political discussion last weekend.  The circumstances were unusual, even if the comment was not.  Usually, you’ll find a lone Keyes backer being numerically outgunned by a bunch of RINOs.  In this case, the sole McCain supporter found himself faced with an enthusiastic and well-informed circle of Keyes people.

 

It is interesting that he had nothing to say about our arguments themselves.  A good guy at heart, he conceded the moral and civic points that we raised.  Then, disappointingly, he fell back on the same old “lesser-of-two-evils” approach that the Republican leadership has been serving up for decades now.  The idea that the only way to win is to concede defeat at the very outset, by backing a candidate who doesn’t stand for conservative principle in the first place, has itself come to fruition in the presumptive nomination of John McCain as the Republican candidate for 2008.  Is this not, in and of itself, enough to convince us at last of the wrong-headedness of this approach?

 

This type of thinking constitutes textbook “enabling behavior,” in the vernacular of popular psychology.  Just as the wife of an alcoholic is supposed to “save the family” by calling in sick for her hung-over husband, we conservatives are being pressured to “save the White House for Republicans” by facilitating the socialist mentality.  “What are you trying to do, get me fired?” the husband demands, if she mentions any qualms.  It is easy to see that, if he did lose his job, the fault would be his own and not hers.  Why then can we not see that it is up to the politician to earn the conservative vote, and not up to the conservatives to put into office a politician who has chronically failed them? 

 

The pressure to be political enablers needs to be staunchly resisted.  The once-great Republican party has, in nominating John McCain, crossed the line from viable to suicidal, and many well-intentioned Americans know it.  That is why they are saying they will not vote for him, even at the cost of not voting at all.  Yet to allow the RINOs to effectively disenfranchise us is not acceptable, either.  So, where do we go from here?

 

Before we look ahead, let’s look back.  The Republicans are the heirs of the Lincoln legacy, but what does that truly mean?  During the era of slavery, there was a party — the Democrats — that refused to stand against the ungodly and un-American evil of its time.  There was another party — the Whigs — that let its opposition to slavery be watered down to the point of irrelevance.  It was in this context that a third party known as the Republicans providentially arose.   

 

Lincoln didn’t make it his life’s objective to rehabilitate a dying political party.  During the nineteenth century crisis of the Republic, he saw to it that American identity and sovereignty — as well as the dignity and life of every American — was, in principle, preserved.  There were challenges, and unspeakable sacrifice, but Lincoln’s cause was ultimately the cause of God Himself, and it was God who saw it through.

 

In our own time, we have again seen the American mission assaulted not only from without, but also from within.  Socialism renamed “liberalism” has been foisting an ersatz version of our country’s character upon us, while the existing party structure has proven unable or unwilling to stand in the gap.  God, however, is still able to achieve His designs for this world, and it is with Him that we must finally cooperate.

 

Alan Keyes, as you know, has ended his lifelong affiliation with the Republicans.  This is a step the Ambassador has not taken lightly, and neither should any of us who are considering a similar move.  He has chosen to seek the presidential nomination of the Constitution party, and he asks that you prayerfully consider supporting him in this path.

 

Many of you took the time to respond to the questionnaire we sent out regarding whether or not Alan ought to go third party.  The overwhelming majority of responses were in favor of his doing so.  You wrote:

• Alan has always been the best choice, and the Constitution Party is an exciting, hopeful option for the millions of disappointed Americans who do not know another choice exists.
   
• I will vote for Dr. Keyes based on his life’s work and not on his party affiliation.
   
• I have always voted Republican, but today we have no “life” protection under their party.  It is a fearful thought to envision life under the domination of any current (major party) candidate.
   
• Either way, I am supporting Alan Keyes for President of the United States of America.  I have voted for him before and I will continue to vote for him until elected.
   
• As a Republican it is hard not to fall in line, but if Alan Keyes joins the Constitution Party and runs as its candidate, I will not only vote for him; I will switch my party affiliation.
   
• Understanding all that he stands for, I will vote for Alan Keyes no matter what!
   
• We the people have no choice in this election.  As soon as Alan Keyes makes it formal and runs on a third party ticket, I will be joining that party with him.  True patriots have no choice.

Dr. Keyes has frequently noted that he is running for President because principled conservatives are being offered no way of participating in politics in this country without violating their own beliefs.  To say that Alan is the “best choice” expresses this fact, yet inadvertently masks another reality.  As Americans and as believers, we recognize that there are things that lie beyond the reach of our own decisions.  Keyes truly is the choice about which we have no choice; a vote in acknowledgment of that which cannot — strictly speaking — be voted on in the first place.  We too hold certain truths to be self-evident.  Among them are the fact that the lesser of two evils is still evil, and that if John McCain fails to be inaugurated next January, he and the Republican leadership will not need to look beyond the frames of their own mirrors in determining exactly who is to blame.