“[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It .is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth.”

Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2).

John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com

Thirty years ago, when my father died, I called Paul to ask his advice on how we might continue dad’s work with the Manion Forum. Paul was comforting, attentive, and encouraging. Only later did I find out that he had been flat on his back in pain that night. And that pain endured for the rest of his life.

In recent years, the pain intensified. Yesterday his pastor told us that he had recently asked, how bad is it? Paul said, “On a scale of one to ten, it’s ten, 24-7.”

In spite of that pain, Paul worked harder than any ten men (and any hundred inside the beltway). The group Jon Utley describes is called “Coalitions for America.” It comprises domestic groups and works on Weyrich’s principle of coalitions: keep your eye on the ball — the “action item.”

Beyond that, you may educate about your issues if you like, but don’t let them get in the way of our coalition goals. And that coalition was devoted to domestic policy. (By the way, a few malcontents didn’t want me around either, but I’d been going since the 1970s, so they couldn’t very well ban me. And Wetrich encouraged me not only to keep coming, but to sound the alarm about the War To Make The World Democratic and Friendly To U.S. Domination.

As a regular at those meetings, I can attest to and applaud Jon’s calm and patient explanation of the basics of foreign policy. Having worked in that area for many years under Senator Jesse Helms, I can assure you that many on the “Christian Right” have little grasp of those basics.

Regarding Frank Gaffney, he was always welcome, and usually spoke. In all those occurrences, he never mentioned the millions he has received from defense contractors. Of course, that does not require that he be silent, only honest. I wrote him once, asking why he never discussed his ample funding from Boeing when he was advocating the notorious tanker deal. he never responded.

Weyrich once listened to Gaffney’s pro-war peroration, which in this particular episode included a paean of praise to the Patriot Act. Weyrich merely leveled his gaze and said, “Never give to your friend power that your enemy might one day inherit.”

Jon Utley was right. Now Obama has inherited the power that Gaffney applauded when accrued to Bush and the War Party. Cui bono?

On our last meeting before Christmas 2002, I briefly addressed the Weyrich group. Taking note of the increasingly bitter divide between the pro- and anti-war factions (we were being called anti-Semites, traitors, and left-wingers by the usual suspects), I said that all of us should at least join together in prayers for peace.

Sure enough, Gaffney jumped up and said, “Chris, we all want peace.”

Sure. We need an endless war lasting through the lives of our grandchildren, with billions more to Boeing and co., to bring peace.

My favorite theologian says otherwise: “These princes will never save us. Stay in the state of grace.”

Merry Christmas and let us all welcome the Prince of Peace with open arms in a free Bethlehem.

I don’t believe it was cowardice. If he was a coward he would have never spoken up in the first place. It was bad strategy. It was placing political pragmatism over principle. This has been a problem for the official conservative movement since the beginning.