Yesterday, on “Common Cents,” I responded to the President’s second inaugural more generally than specifically. This response was not designed to undermine the importance, and indeed necessity, of countering the President’s far left proposals point-for-point; indeed, I intend to do that in the days and weeks to come. Instead, I sought to reassure folks who believe in faith, family, freedom and free-markets that all is not lost, and that the country has not been inexorably altered and forever changed. President Obama is, arguably, one of the most politically successful presidents of the modern era, precisely because he has learned to demonize and demean his opposition, while dividing Americans into subgroups that he sets up as adversaries. He divides Americans to conquer America with his secular-progressive policy agenda.
The greatest casualty of such a caustic and divisive approach is the American Dream itself, not to mention our national unity. One of our early national mottos, as coined on our currency, is “E. Pluribus Unum,” which means “Out of Many – One.” This President has reverse engineered this phrase and has instead created “E. Unum Pluribus,” or “Out of One – Many.” The President of the United States is woefully uninterested in uniting the American People but is, instead, committed to creating non-existent conservative monsters that are hell-bent on deporting immigrants in our midst, cutting-off all aid to the most vulnerable in our society and relegating senior citizens to the ash heap of history. These characterizations are so off-base they border on the criminal; they are slanderous, baseless and designed solely to win political campaigns – even at the larger cost of our national unity and sense of purpose.
That’s why folks who are ready to shred the GOP Platform’s commitment to life, family and free-market principles are acting prematurely, and in a way that will negate the party’s purpose for even existing. The President’s reelection was not repudiation of conservative principles, but of straw men caricatures of so-called conservatives created by the Obama Campaign. The divide and conquer campaign tactic of the President and his team worked, and all-too-effectively. The best thing conservatives can do now is rebrand our message, not abandon our core. Let’s get busy educating the American People on what we are for, instead of allowing the President to paint an inaccurate portrait of what we’re against.
Polls conducted on Election Day, and again the day before the inauguration, confirm that most Americans remain opposed to the President’s political agenda, even if they like the President personally. Therefore, the logical and best thing for conservatives to do is present a winsome message of cultural renewal, economic vitality and pro-family policy. In short, let’s propose a twenty-first century pathway to the American Dream. The American Dream is not dead, and the principles that make it possible are not rejected, they are just buried beneath a mountain of malarkey that makes them seem like something they are not. The President won by calling oppression freedom and freedom oppression, and it’s time for articulate, fresh voices for freedom to fill the void of conservative leadership.
That’s all the more reason I’m proud to be a South Carolinian; we have a Congressional Delegation second-to-none, and leaders at the state level who understand what it will take to lead freedom’s revival. I believe that revival of the American Dream will begin right here in the Palmetto State. Let’s get busy building the movement!
