Conservative Sheep, Neocon Shepherds

Nelson Hultberg

In 1919, Rudyard Kipling wrote in The Gods of the Copybook Headings, "As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man / That...the Sow returns to her Mire / And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire."

Likewise, it appears that conservatives return to their disastrous past policies. In outlining his foreign policy plans for America, Jeb Bush recently stated, "I love my father and my brother...But I am my own man - and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences." He went on to say, "I won't talk about the past. I'll talk about the future."

What does this mean in actual foreign policy goals and actions? As reported by Chris Stirewalt at Fox News, the foreign policy team being formed by Jeb Bush "is not just very much George W. Bush's, but includes two of the most controversial figures from [the] invasion of Iraq, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Short of including Dick Cheney, this is the strongest possible indication that Bush is embracing his brother's foreign policy."

"Feels like old times," reports Stierwalt. "Other core players from the George W. Bush administration on the team include former Homeland Security secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former intelligence bosses Porter Goss, John Negroponte and Michael Hayden."

How many conservatives, other than Jeb Bush, are also of this mindset? How many are itching to get bogged down again in the Mideast cauldron with ground troops taking on ISIS? John Kasich of Ohio, for one, states in the Washington Post that he supports sending U.S. ground forces to fight the Islamic State: "You will not solve this problem with only air power." Will Chris Christie be strong enough to reject such herd thinking? Hardly. He's the personification of an establishment sycophant.

Paul, Cruz, and Walker

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Scott Walker will surely not stand for this myopic rehash of Bush Doctrine interventionism. But neocons control the GOP both ideologically and financially. To become the nominee, a candidate must acquiesce to the neoconservative worldview. This is why all prospective nominees (even Paul, Cruz, and Walker), when discussing the illegal immigration problem, state that they support "opening up a path to citizenship" for the illegals. What else is this but amnesty for over 20 million illegals? What else is this but acquiescence to the neocon controllers of the party? Prospective nominees realize that such a stand is mandatory if they are to win the nomination of a party controlled by "pro-amnesty" neocons. Will the same acquiescent attitude also govern Paul, Cruz, and Walker on foreign policy?

One certainly hopes not, but the desire to win the nomination is a fire that burns obsessively in the bellies of every presidential aspirant. Such an obsessive fire, far too often, destroys the principles of all aspirants who eventually cater to the ideological and financial partisans of the GOP hierarchy, i.e., the powerful intellectuals, bankers, and corporate moguls, who dominate the Washington-Wall Street axis.

This hierarchy is "interventionist" through and through, and it will turn most GOP aspirants into dancing puppets. Watch over this next year as the GOP nomination seekers drift closer and closer into acquiescence to the neocon worldview on immigration, welfarism, and a police-the-world foreign policy.

It's disgusting because this has been going on for over 40 years now, and nothing ever changes. When do the lights come on in conservative heads? When do they come to grips with the need to form an alternative political party if we are to save the country?

Those who refuse to see this, and insist it is a mandatory rule of politics that we must "always work within the GOP," don't understand that their rule is only a slogan with no rationality to back it up. They have become part of the problem, not the solution. They have become the equivalent to Lenin's "useful idiots" for the neocon dictatorship being insidiously formed around us.

There's a saying in Las Vegas that casino owners "send cabs for the gullible sheep." Well, neocons do the same for Republicans who preach the myth that we "must always stay within the GOP and try to take it over with new conservative legislators."

Vegas casino owners love the sheep who come to gamble because they know the game is rigged in the casinos' favor. And likewise the neocon hierarchy loves conservatives who preach "eternal love for the GOP" because it knows the party is rigged in its favor. The hierarchy has the power to buy off (or discourage from running again) 90% of new libertarian and conservative legislators sent to reform Washington.

Buying Off the Patriots

If you doubt that 90% of libertarians and conservatives are bought off or discouraged from running again by the neocon hierarchy, consider this: In 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus was formed, consisting of libertarian and conservative congressmen to fight for free-markets and restoration of the Republic as the Founders envisioned. In the first three years the RLC had about 25-30 members in the House of Representatives out of 435. Today they have 36 members.

If the strategy of taking over the Republican Party by sending new libertarian and conservative legislators to Washington has any validity, why has the RLC not grown to 200 members by now? Every election year, scores of new candidates win office who could be classified as strong patriots. Let's say 30-40 every two years. Why has all this new blood not translated into firm control of the GOP? At least 400 new conservatives and libertarians have been sent to Washington in the last 24 years. Why have we only increased the RLC membership by 8 during this time?

The answer is obvious to those who are perceptive and grasp the frailties of human nature: Out of the 400 new libertarian and conservative representatives we sent to Washington over the past 24 years who remained in Congress, only 36 had the strength of mind to stand firm on principle. Only 36 were possessed of the integrity of Ron Paul. Many got discouraged and went home. But of those who remained most capitulated to the enticements of fame, power, popularity, access to more campaign contributions, and ease of re-election that the neocon hierarchy promises to all incoming legislators who play ball with them by "modifying" their principles and easing away from hard core insistence on free-market capitalism. In other words, they got bought off. 

The lure of power and wealth has been corrupting men since time began. Do our conservative pundits believe that somehow human nature can be dramatically changed and politicians will no longer seek gratification of their egos? That such politicians will not cross over the aisle to do the neocons' bidding in order to gain more power and wealth? Do those activists in the Tea Party believe such nonsense?

Of course not. Why then are so many conservative pundits and activists preaching that "we must always remain within the Republican Party?" Why are so many ignoring history and human nature? Why are they not checking deeper into their arguments to make sure they are subscribing to truth, instead of succumbing to slogans? Isn't this what rational men do in disputes of monumental importance?

Unfortunately our pundits and activists have abandoned reason and are more interested in slogans. Consequently, the neocon hierarchy continues to bamboozle the Republican rank and file with the old communist agitprop that "one must never doubt the widsom of the party."

Thus conservative sheep remain loyal to the GOP and, in doing so, enable their neocon shepherds to relentlessly centralize government in Washington while perpetuating military interventionism around the globe. Strong minded patriots would revolt, not readily acquiesce to unconditional "love for the Party."

They Don't Think

Hitler told his Nazi followers: "How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think." Ditto with the neocons. How fortunate for them that so many conservatives don't think. Don't observe history. Don't grasp the flaws of human nature. Don't understand the evil of appeasement. Don't muster the courage to revolt. How fortunate for the neocons that so many conservative pundits refuse to leave the flock and continue to play the lackey to their neocon masters. How fortunate that so many are so soft and undiscerning.

America is descending into despotism because of the softness of conservative pundits and activist sheep. My message is this:

What will you tell your grandchildren when they have grown up amidst vicious tyranny and ask you, "why didn't you oppose the neocons when we still had a chance to save freedom? Why didn't you revolt? Why didn't you break from the GOP? Why would you continue for forty, fifty, sixty years to tolerate the constant 'crossing of the aisle' by conservative legislators you sent to Washington? Why would you continue to support a party hierarchy that bought off or scared off 90% of the freedom advocates you sent to reform the system? Why would you continue to tolerate collectivists who relentlessly expanded their power every year, yet soothed you every election with embarrassing lies claiming that they stood for freedom? Why didn't you revolt, Grandfather, when we still had time?"


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Nelson Hultberg is a freelance scholar/writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic www.afr.org. He has a BA degree in Economics from Beloit College in Wisconsin. His articles have appeared over the past twenty years in such publications as The Dallas Morning News, American Conservative, Insight, Liberty, The Freeman, and The Social Critic, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as Capitol Hill Outsider, Conservative Action Alerts, Daily Paul, Canada Free Press, and The Daily Bell. He is the author of The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values. Email: nelshultberg (at) aol.com

The Ark of Freedom

Nelson Hultberg

There is only one hope to stop the tyrannical rot of statism stealing over our country. We must challenge the Democrat-Republican monopoly of politics that foments the rot.

Is this being redundant? Heard all this before? Perhaps, but our most defiant Founding Father, Samuel Adams, was very redundant in his pursuit of justice. He told his fellows repeatedly: "It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." Irate and tireless are what's important here. We can save our country only if we patriots (who are the minority) relentlessly challenge the Democrat-Republican monopoly and the egregious falsity it spews out every election year.

Our Democrat-Republican politicians are not interested in freedom. They're interested in power and riding around in black limousines. Conservatives and libertarians must break from them totally and join with millions of patriotic independents and blue-collar Democrats to form a new governing coalition.

Never can we hear too much of this message of American salvation. The Democrat-Republican monopoly is like the Bolsehviks' Master Party collectivizing us with its regimentation (only done with ballots rather than bullets, subsidies rather than gulags), but always degrading our lives in so many ways, keeping us from what could be and ought to be. So if redundancy is the price we must pay to rouse the people from their stupor, so be it.

But the People Just Don't Care!

The most frequent objection encountered in discussing a challenge of the Democrat- Republican monopoly is that it will be impossible for an alternative political party to win because the people just don't care enough to do something so revolutionary. They are mesmerized by their SUVs and all the goodies that Consumerland has brought them. Voting will not change things because the voters are already bought and paid for with the bread and circuses government perpetually sends their way. Apathy dominates their lives.

This is partly true; most people will not listen at first. But life is not static. The great majority of Americans will begin to be receptive as the country descends deeper into the massive debt and immigration crises now upon us. It will not be long until the dollar is dropping like a rock in a dry well, 30 million illegals are banging on the door of our Congressional appeasers, and government is stultifying everything in its path. Then the people will be willing to listen to calls for an alternative party solution.

How far into the future that day is cannot be said with certainty. But we need to start building an anti-amnesty, patriot party NOW. The time to build an ark is before the raging flood is upon us, not after we're waist-deep in the tides of chaos and despair.

Amidst the coming socio-economic tumult, there will be a breakdown of many of the established ways of doing things. When the Keynesian fallacies plaguing us today have wreaked sufficient destruction upon our economic stability and sanity, there will take place an inevitable economic crash much bigger than the busts of 2008 and 2000; more lethal even than 1929. It is then, as we are climbing out of this catastrophic crash, that the people will be crying for radical change. Our danger lies in the fact that Democrat-Republican demagogues, bolstered by waves of third-world immigrants, will stampede the confused masses into accepting all-pervasive government control of the economy. They will abandon what vestiges of a free country we have left.

There will be a rash of sequels to what Roosevelt biographer, John T. Flynn, called the "dance of the crackpots" during the Great Depression era. Ivory tower eggheads will descend upon Washington like weevils to the gristmill to bring government and our corporations further together into not just today's partial fascism, but into the total form.

Attacking the Fortress

This "dance of collectivist crackpots" and its government-business partnership will have to be fought. And there is only one way to do that. We must attack its protective fortress, the Democrat-Republican monopoly over politics. But the time to start doing so is now. This means commitment instead of cynicism. This means a new political party - the National Independent Party - that AFR is forming.

Only in this way will we have a chance to save America as we are climbing out of the upcoming crash. Only in this way can we convince voters to return to the Founders' ideal of freedom, rather than subordination of America to World Government, which is what the Democrat-Republican monopoly will certainly be preaching.

If, during the coming crisis, we do not have a strong "freedom candidate" in the national TV presidential debates to counter Democrat-Republican proposals for subordination of America to World Government and a World Bank, the first stages of Orwell's nightmare will arrive. American sovereignty will become a "19th century delusion" in the media's eyes. The United Nations will begin to dictate our political direction in huge and hideous ways. To avoid this denouement, it is crucial that we get a "freedom candidate" into the national TV presidential debates to challenge the globalist propaganda that Washington's odious elites will be heaping upon a confused American populace.

To help make this happen, we at AFR have published Salvation of America (4 pgs). It lays out a revolutionary strategy of reform for our monetary, tax, immigration, and foreign policy systems that will stop the Democrat-Republican monopoly from its steady march to bigger and bigger government.

The Failure of the Libertarian Party

"But alternative political parties always fail," reply the naysayers. Yes, this is true. But there's a reason for their failure. They fail because they structure themselves upon excessively idealistic platforms that frighten the electorate with dissolution of the welfare state. They ignore the fact that politics is a game of incrementalism. They ignore the fact that we're not going to eliminate the Federal Reserve, the income tax, and the welfare state overnight.

As a result, no nationally prominent candidates choose to run on the tickets of any alternative "freedom party" out there. Thus their candidates end up getting at best 1% of the vote. Our article, Why the Libertarian Party Fails (4 pgs), explains how today's alternative parties foolishly marginalize themselves.

The National Independent Party will not make this mistake of "marginalization." Thus it will be able to attract a nationally prominent candidate (of libertarian-conservative beliefs) such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, or Mike Lee. Our Four Pillars of Reform platform is designed to stop the growth of government and restore sanity to the country, but not threaten the voters with dissolution of the welfare state like the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party do every election year. Restoring the Republic will be left to future generations; we need to get the runaway freight train of government growth stopped first.

Libertarians and Immigration

Those libertarians of America who oppose our tough stand on immigration must rethink their reasoning. Tight borders are based upon one of the most libertarian of all principles - the "right to freedom of association." This means humans have the right to form into groups and establish rules for entrance into their groups, whether it's a family with a fence around its yard, or a country club with a gate at its entrance, or a labor union with closed doors and by laws, or a country with tight borders and a Constitution. There is no such thing as a "right" to go wherever we please as Judge Napolitano and the Libertarian Party maintain. Immigration is not a fundamental "right." It is a conditional "privilege" conveyed by the members of the group one is seeking to enter.

This was the view of Washington, Jefferson, and the Founders in 1787. [1] It was the view of the Supreme Court in 1892. [2] And it must become America's view again. No individual has the right to enter a country uninvited.

All property in the world is owned either individually by persons or collectively by groups. The owners of a house and yard decide who can enter their house. The members of a country club decide who can enter their club. And the citizens of a country decide who can enter their country. The government is not destroying rights by denying entrance to certain people to the country it governs. It is merely expressing the rightful will of the owners of the country.

Challenging Liberal Statism

American voters are ready for this kind of common sense campaign in which a nationally prominent libertarian-conservative challenges the Democrat-Republican monopoly. It was too early in 1992 when Ross Perot made his run. Now it's not. The people are fed up and ready for an alternative political party. An anti-amnesty, freedom candidate running as an  Independent would electrify the country's conservatives, libertarians, independents, and blue-collar Democrats. He would get 38-40% of the vote and win in a three-man race.

This then is AFR's goal - to build an Ark of Freedom for America, to rekindle that spirit that exists eternally in the hearts and minds of all those who will not kowtow to tyranny. We are the "New Sons of Liberty." We intend to take back our country from the statist black limousine crowd and all its collaborators - the academic cheerleaders for multiculturalism, the vast legions of obtuse bureaucrats, the liberal media apparatchiks, the mobs of unthinking voters - who are selling the greatest country in history down the river for an illusion of security and wealth via government pork and privilege.
   
America was meant for the free, for the self-reliant, for those individuals who are willing to live on their own wits, energy, and courage. She was never supposed to have a powerful centralized maze of bureaucracies regimenting and subsidizing every aspect of our lives. She stood in the beginning for "limited government," "personal independence," and a "small, selective flow of immigrants gaining entrance to the country." Unless she restores that stand, there will be no true liberty or justice for men on this earth in the future.


Notes

1. Writings of George Washington, Government Printing Office, 1931-44, 27: 254. See also Erler, West, and Marini, The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration, 2007, pp.
18-22, and Thomas G. West, Vindicating the Founders,1997, pp. 150-151.

2. Nishimura Ekiu v. U.S., 142 U.S. 651, 659 (1892).


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Nelson Hultberg is a freelance scholar/writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic www.afr.org. His articles have appeared over the past twenty years in such publications as The Dallas Morning News, American Conservative, Insight, Liberty, The Freeman, and The Social Critic, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as Capitol Hill Outsider, Conservative Action Alerts, Daily Paul, Canada Free Press, and The Daily Bell. He is the author of The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values. Email: nelshultberg (at) aol.com