Random Observations in the Wake of the Elections -- Part 2

Why Conservatives Lost
By Chuck Colson
Thursday, November 9, 2006

Election Day is over, the votes have been counted, and it's clear that conservatives took a beating. I have always maintained that Christian leaders should not make partisan endorsements — and I never have. But I am unashamed to say that I am a conservative.

In one sense, I think, all Bible-believers are conservative, because we believe in governing our lives by revealed truth rather than by man-made, utopian ideologies. Modern liberalism wants to remove all restraints on people's behavior. Conservatives believe in the moral law. So Bible - believers might be liberal on a lot of issues, at least in the common sense of that word, like helping the poor, but they would be fundamentally conservative in their disposition toward life.

So, what happened in Tuesday's election? The economy is strong. And it's true we're in an unpopular war, but people vote their pocketbooks most often. Yet the conservative movement, which had been gaining ground, has blown it. It has been defeated. Why?

The answer is one that may startle you. Conservatives lost because they deserved to. They failed to live up to the high standards of personal behavior they preach about. And that's what brought them down.

Is there a double standard here? Why should the case of Mark Foley have helped bring down the Republicans? After all, twenty years ago a Democratic congressman, Gerry Studds, had an affair with a male page, disclosed that he was a homosexual, got his wrist slapped by the House, and then got re - elected! Why has Foley's indiscretion turned into Foley-gate?

The answer is because it's just the tip of the iceberg. Look at how the conservatives for years railed against the Democratic liberal establishment and all of its money, the lobbying establishment, the junkets, the payoffs. The conservatives campaigned against it in 1994, only to take over Washington and do exactly the same thing. This is what is known as rank hypocrisy.

Is it unfair that when conservatives do things liberals do, that they, the conservatives, are labeled as hypocrites? No.

According to that great conservative thinker Russell Kirk, the first tenet of conservatism is the preservation of the moral order. True conservatives don't look at government as a plaything by which they can impose their latest ideas on the country; they look at political power as a guardianship, what Chesterton called the democracy of the dead. In other words, we have a debt to those who have gone before us, and the primary debt is to preserve the moral and constitutional order that our forebears fought to defend.

So when a conservative has a much - publicized affair or is outed for improper sexual behavior with pages, or digs into the congressional budget pot to hand out earmarks to his own district, he is a hypocrite to be scorned.

My hope and prayer is that conservatives in America will do some serious, sober soul - searching. We need to get our own act together before we can preach to others, or before we deserve to hold power. And if we break trust, we are breaking trust with the very essence of who we are. Our own character is at stake.

You can talk all you want about the unpopularity of President Bush, or the Iraq war, or immigration. But what this campaign really boiled down to was, well, when it comes to conservatives, it's character, stupid. If conservatives don’t learn that lesson, they will spend a long time in exile — and deservedly so.



Chuck Colson is the Chairman and Founder of BreakPoint and of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

I am not a big fan of Colson, but I generally agree with his assessment of this aspect of the election. Conservatives WERE/ARE hypocrites, and they deserved to lose. They left their principles, and didn't keep their promises, and they deserved to lose for that too.

Now, I didn't deserve to lose -- but I WILL. The Democrats will be merciless on those who kept them from their rightful thrones for the past 12 years. Cooperation to them is very easy to define -- it means CAPITULATION TO THEM.

But, who can argue that Conservatives didn't get just what they deserved? I honestly can't.

So why is it Conservatives are held to higher moral standards than Democrats? And isn't it a 'double standard'?

Let's face some facts. The electorate KNOWS before they ever vote for Democrats, that they HAVE NO MORALS. The entire nation has long been disabused of such notions as ethics or moral absolutes with regard to Democrats -- Ever heard of BILL CLINTON?!?

Conservatives, on the other hand, claim to believe in and support "moral absolutes," and a general "Judeo-Christian Ethic." When Republicans violate those moral and ethical standards to which they lay claim, the Electorate holds them accountable -- like this year. Abrhamoff, Foley, Burns, Allen.... Now, SOME of these people DID indeed violate their self-proclaimed standards, others DID NOT, but were deceptively portrayed as having done so by the Leftist MSM. In any case, the Electorate had seen enough.

Democrats, however, when they violate this same set of standards, are generally laughed off by the electorate, and their lawlessness and criminal behavior is largely ignored by the LEFTIST MSM. Why> Because the People generally KNOW Democratsd have NO morals or ethics, so they EXPECT this kind of behavior out of them. And, because the LEFTIST MSM has a vested interest in the LEFTIST Democratic Party, so they protect their comrades and hide their misdeeds.

A double standard? Colson can't be seeing this for the first time! He suffered dearly for it over 30 years ago! But, thanks be to God, He turned it around for Colson. Let's HOPE God wills to do so for the entire nation -- because we are in a devil of a mess.