-
Coal Matters — Even in Manhattan
June 25, 2012 | 14 comments
-
An Unprecedented Two-Track Move
March 14, 2012 | 37 comments
-
He Kept His Eyes on the Prize
January 9, 2012 | 83 comments
-
Trust, Don’t Verify
November 17, 2011 | 27 comments
-
If Israel Strikes…
November 4, 2011 | 153 comments
The Nation's Pulse
A 2012 Conservative Case for America’s Future
In other words, it’s a make or break year for constitutional conservatism.
(Page 2 of 2)
Another reality is that constitutional conservatism cannot become our national policy without all three branches of government. If conservatives retake both houses of Congress it can only block bad legislation. Without a two-thirds supermajority, conservatives in Congress cannot override presidential vetoes of good legislation or undo harmful administrative regulations through the Congressional Review Act.
We need a constitutional conservative in the White House. Not all Republicans are part of the solution, and some leading Republicans are even part of the problem. America needs a president who is reliable on fiscal issues, and social issues, and defense issues. Two out of three is not enough. Ronald Reagan was all three, and only a Republican solid on all three bases can pick up President Reagan’s mantle to lead this country through the daunting challenges we face.
In our system of government, none of this will succeed without the right people serving in the federal judiciary. But judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, so if the American people elect a constitutional conservative president and a Senate willing to fight for judges, there are scores of spectacular lawyers and scholars who are faithful to the original meaning of the Constitution. If we elect the right people, they can take care of the courts.
The courts are imperative for all branches of the conservative movement. In addition to abortion, same-sex marriage and religious liberty, the Supreme Court is deciding all-important economic issues like Obamacare and national security issues like Bill of Rights protections for terrorists captured by our military on foreign battlefields. All conservatives must demand that only principled originalists be nominated to the Supreme Court and lower courts.
So America faces a historic choice. And conservatives face a historic task, of making the case to the voters for how and why constitutional conservatism is the way to return our nation to strength and stability, and electing national leadership that will honestly and definitively tackle these challenges for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski are the authors of Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
About the Author
Ken Klukowski is a fellow with the American Civil Rights Union and is on faculty at Liberty University School of Law.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ken Blackwell
More Articles by Ken Klukowski
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/04/a-2012-conservative-case-for-a
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Alan Brooks| 1.4.12 @ 6:41AM
"The 2012 election could be the most important in our lifetime,"
What a Platitude.
Actually, the last important election was '84.
emo| 1.4.12 @ 9:58PM
your posts are pointless nonsequitors, as opposed to nonsequitors with points.
Moe Blotz| 1.4.12 @ 7:49AM
A famous catcher for the New York Yankees once said,"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
Tim the Enchanter| 1.4.12 @ 12:54PM
That was Yogi Berra. That's the first line I thought of when I started reading this article.
Indy| 1.4.12 @ 4:57PM
Indeed, Yogi has some great quotes
http://www.yogiberra.com/yogi-isms.html
" The future ain't what it used to be " How true...
irish19| 1.4.12 @ 9:57PM
Thanks for that link.
Nancy in NC| 1.4.12 @ 8:43AM
I thought this was an excellent article, noting the real differences between what our choices are for 2012.
We better get this right, folks, or the fat lady will sing...a swan song for what was once a great country.
VonMisesJr| 1.4.12 @ 9:07AM
Our Constitution is already in exile.
ObamaCare repeals our "unalienable right to life and liberty." Dodd Frank infringes on our right to "pursuit of happiness" giving DC access to your finances. The central government owns some 90% of mortages and is the sole issuer of student loans. The EPA decides what you can do with your property and now NDAA gives the government the ability to use the military to detain Americans.
And we have socialist morons that will sell their children's future for a handout, not realizing that they are selling their own souls and freedom.
TrueBlue | 1.5.12 @ 12:14PM
Ah, but it's not THEIR freedom they are selling. After all, by the time those things are fully implemented, they'll already be dead. So they get to live life to the fullest, and to hell with everyone else.
Indy| 1.4.12 @ 9:22AM
McConnell and Boehner will continue to damage Conservatives in 2012, there is much work to do to educate voters. GOP leadership is weak an unwilling to take on the Left by playing offense, they constantly place not to lose and what happens, Lucy pulls the football.
Good article, here's another on the proper role of government
http://forloveofgodandcountry......overnment/
Educating voters on the role of government is key and it will not be easy, unless voters understand why America loses if we continue on the path to increased government dependency, Our Republic is gone. My children see their parents doing what we can to make a difference, we want them to know you cannot sit on the sidelines and do nothing. I know others here are doing the same, we must stay engaged no matter how steep the hill.
Al Adab| 1.4.12 @ 10:35AM
Faced with this knowledge, the GOP is attempting to nominate a technocrat who can manage the metastatic federal government better than the Dems. Is there a point in that? Our goal as Conservatives should be to make it smaller not manage it better. Is there a candidate who proposes that?
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.4.12 @ 11:17AM
The ONLY reason, this election isn't over, already, is the Black Community.
They've got AT LEAST, a 17% Unemployment Rate among Adults, and 50% for Black teens and twenty somethings. This President took away the School Vouchers from the Poor Black Children, in D.C. Forcing them in to the same D.C. Public Schools that he said: "Do not meet my Daughters' Standards".
For 60 YEARS, Black America has Sat On it's Ass, waiting for a Welfare Check, from the Liberals. Every other Ethnic Group has run rings around them, in every possible endeavor, with the exception of Being Thrown In PRISON.
I don't know if it's that they have grow ACCUSTOMED to living in a Terrarium, and being hand fed by the State? I don't know if it's like the Bell Curve, says, and they're just STUPID? Or, if like in Darwins' Origin Of Species: They have just EVOLVED in to a Race that can't fend for itself, and needs to be taken care of.
Think - COWS.
They're gonna vote for him for ONE Reason, and ONE Reason only. And they will do it, DESPITE Martin Luther King's Dream, and his Sacrifice.
And, when it's all done, they'll go back to being Fat and Lazy, and sleeping til Noon. Unless, of course, there's a New Michael Jordan Sneaker, on sale at the Mall, whereby, they'll get up early -11:00 - and go down there and try to punch someone in the face, for the things they want. Why WORK, when you can Knock the B*tch Out, and take her Sh*t. That's what I'm talkin about, yo.
Is it Racist?
I don't care.
IT'S TRUE?
And, they will be the Death of this Country, yet.
PJ| 1.4.12 @ 5:21PM
Sadly, the Black community is becoming more & more irrelevant for this country: not enough eligible voters to make a difference on a national level. The Black community is aborting babies faster than birthing them, the men are uneducated & ignorant (not stupid) & dying from gunshot wounds or drugs, & decent women can not find decent men to marry, thus remain childless. ----------> a prescription for a death of a race.
9thID| 1.4.12 @ 11:34AM
Ken & Ken: EXCELLENT article!
This will surely set the Libertine Paulbots off on a new rant. I can already hear Capo Clint's head exploding in the distance...
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - Adams
Slacker| 1.4.12 @ 1:17PM
I disagree. Too many conservatives, including the authors, cannot make sense of the reality that they lost the culture wars. While it is sort of endearing to see some continue the fight, the war is lost. Cultural conservatives remind me of the Japanese soldier who was never told WWII was over and finally surrendered in 1972.
So bash the libertarians if it makes you happy but, the brand of conservatism envisioned by the authors is basically dead.
9thID| 1.4.12 @ 5:20PM
I think 2012 will reveal whether America begins to see a restoration of its Judeo-Christian Founding heritage & revival as we caught a glimpse of in the rise of the Tea Party, or as you make the case for -- a death spiral into a French Revolution and anarchy. I hope you are wrong as secular humanist Europe is a harbinger of what's coming our way...
Petronius| 1.4.12 @ 12:07PM
A full 2/3 of the electorate is too infantile for words. They elected Obama and will do so again because they are the Occupiers who want government to be their mommy, hold their hands, change their dirty diapers, and put them down to watch American Idol until they breathe their last. We Conservatives are to be dispossessed and slaughtered in the liberal version of the Final Solution so that the Government of the Trash, by the Trash, and For the Trash shall not perish from the earth. The Dark Ages are back and here to stay because the lowlife in our midst cannot tolerate even one individual who is better than Them. Their world is an ant hill built of pedestrian mediocrity, mendacity, narcissism, vandalism, and hate. Such people cannot be defeated politically. Our America is already a memory.
Al Adab| 1.4.12 @ 1:13PM
Petronius:
I indeed fear that your vision may be all to real. As T. Jefferson (of all Deists) said, "Indeed I tremble fotr my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."
dcd| 1.5.12 @ 4:12AM
The electorate probably will vote for Obama again. Not because they are infantile but because, as the authors make abundantaly clear, conservatives have absolutely no intention of representing their interests.
Conservatives can condemn enviromentalists, choice, science, welfare, gays, secularism, etc all they want and the electorate will vote accordingly.
Yeah democracy, the system everyone can hate.
emo| 1.4.12 @ 9:57PM
""The 2012 election could be the most important in our lifetime,""
Guess what...2008 was the most important election of our lifetime. As was 2004 and 2000 and 1992 for that matter. 2016 will also be the most important election of our lifetime as well. Why? We have, in the USA, a political party devoted to the destruction of the USA as a constitutional republic. So long as that remains the case, EVERY election will be the most important of our lifetime.
TrueBlue | 1.5.12 @ 12:18PM
Truth.
Brian| 1.4.12 @ 10:15PM
Yes, it's all so clear to me now. Our only hope is to elect cultural marxists, homosexualists, and abortionists. And since they won't have the votes to even touch spending they'll go whole hog after passing their social agenda.
POST American| 1.5.12 @ 7:48AM
"---Understand folks, unless we realize the
unthinkable has already been done to us
---we're finished."
The 4 decades underway,
Globalist RED China world sellout,
TREASON and EUGENICS OP
is the ONLY issue this election
----in fact, this century.
----------MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT-----------