Posted by
VBushmills on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 8:05:35 AM
Seems I needed to revise the title as a few light-standing conseravtives saw the title, assumed the rest, and when straight to the salutation.
I always assumed that was a pathology of the Left, but it seems its generational.
Looking back over our posts since mid-2008, we've had a common theme here at the Sands Institute...that of preserving the Constitution of the United States and the right of the common man and woman to pursue life, liberty and happiness as they see fit, with a view to building, owning and perpetuating their House.
Sadly, words and oaths don't seem to mean much these days, but no more it seems than the Constitution itself, which both parties seem to ignore or circumvent at will. As they seem to do so with the approval of nearly if not over half of the people of the United States, you can understand the magnitude of the task at hand.
And it won't be enough to simply grab power and jerk the teat out of the mouth of the free-riders. Besides, President Obama may do that jerking for us...only for other political reasons. (We have to educate ourselves as to what those other reasons might be, and be watchful.)
We have to win back the culture. We have to begin the long process of reacquainting ourselves with the Constitutional blueprint, and to re-inject its values into our culture in the same manner self-love, vanity, and appetite-appeasement were injected to replace it.
This has always been part one of the Constitutional assumptions, that it would remain in good health so long as a majority of people dedicated a reasonable amount of their time (the tithe) to building their House and preserving it by educating their children as to its secrets. This is still a keystone to liberty. You can't get there without it.
This is the first part of the solution, and while it will take years, the path is really clear and fairly simple. All it takes is work and dedication.
The second part of the Constitutional assumptions involves the rise, or maybe better worded, the re-awakening, of the Protectors of the Constitution, who need to define with more clarity just what is and what is not a constitutional conservative, and then build real plans to once again shake hands with the common man and women in order to bring about both cultural and political revival in America.
Recently Rush Limbaugh said he didn't have time to worry about "the Movement" as he was too busy trying to rescue the country. In my view, the movement and the country are now both irretrievably joined. They are inseparable. You can't fix one without the other. You can't attack one without wounding the other.
All it is for us to do is to collectively, in one voice, define with more precision just what it is about America we want to save, and just what it really means to be a constitutional conservative.
With that in mind we at the Sands Institute for the Constitution and the Common Man hereby call for a National Convention of conservatives to be held within 18 months, open to all who want to participate. From that week-long Convention will arise 1) a drafting committee to set into stone an enduring set of principles of conservatism, as found in the Constitution, (something like Martin Luther's 95 Theses) and 2) political and cultural platforms for focused action. Political action groups will be started from any community of any size that wants to establish one. Conservatism can no longer afford to be a conglomeration of one-issue movements.
From that Convention and resulting platforms may flow a new political party, but not necessarily, or even desirably. That remains to be seen. At the barest minimum the Convention will set forth a new set of standards which will be submitted to all people seeking public office, to either accept or reject as a foundation for their public service. This seal of approval, this imprimatur, will serve as a contract requiring an unbending allegiance to the same Constitution each members takes an oath to protect and defend anyway. Remain faithful to it and continue to receive our support. Dishonor those vows and unlike 2006 and 2008, losing candidates will no longer need to look for scape-goats. They will know exactly why they lost.
Vassar Bushmills