The political situation in Texas is interesting, given Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s decision to challenge Gov. Rick Perry in the next Republican Primary.  She has set up a number of dominoes as it were too, as people jockey to run for her seat and significant offices become vacant by various candidates or incumbents for this reason.  For Sen. Hutchison to challenge the Governor, well, isn’t exactly playing the good Republican, indeed with Texas doing as well as it is. Supporters on both sides argue which is the true conservative, and both have their conservative detractors. At the same time, insurgent conservative-libertarian Debra Medina is affecting the same race. Nationally, Governor Palin made waves by endorsing a conservative third party candidate over the choice of the local GOP in a congressional special election for New York’s 23^rd District. The Republican nominee angered many conservatives by supporting same-sex marriage and abortion, and this caused some to bolt. All of which is very instructive, in terms of what is happening within the Republican Party.

With the Reagan coalition in tatters and for many, a perceived Socialist in the White House, conservatives are literally pinging off walls. In Texas, Republican moderates dream about broadening the party, but ardent conservatives are committed now to expanding their leadership of the GOP and consolidating political position in the State during 2010, in order to become an important national political base in 2012 for countermovement against the out-and-out socialization of America. It’s a meaningful strategy, considering that Texas is the most conservative but also the largest and most prosperous "Red" state—and the only viable bastion of states rights and strict constitutional construction left in this federally overregulated, overtaxed and debt-ridden Union. If conservatives do not defeat themselves, they might just pull it off.

Notice that I said conservatives might pull it off, and not Republicans per se. That’s because more and more Americans are coming to the conclusion that both parties are wedded to power and to the self-destructive status quo. More Americans see a need to reinforce national sovereignty and independence from various international regimes that seek to tie us down like so many Lilliputians, and they see the government refusing to do so intent instead on someone else’s New World Order.  Americans are increasingly demanding the return to representative governance, to sound money, to accountability and transparency, to character in office—honesty and moral courage from the men and women they elect. George Wallace once famously remarked, "There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them" (by which he meant the two political parties).  There seemed to be for a little while, but his critique cuts now again to the bone.

The truth is that both parties are loose coalitions—one happens to be left leaning, while the other is right leaning.  Both contain disparate elements.  Ins and Outs compete within both of the coalitions, and electoral defeats normally provide the opportunity for Outs to get back in.  Traditional constitutional conservatives are still the Outs in the Republican Party, trying to take over from neoconservatives who decimated it. Both political parties are participatory vehicles primarily. The ideas that animate them juggle around all the time, and predominant strains change over time as the history of political parties shows.  Many conservative Democrats and American Party types joined with the Reagan coalition and are still nominally Republican, although many are showing up at tea parties preferring to call themselves Independent.  Quite a few are joining the Constitution Party. If conservatives don’t succeed in firm capture of the GOP soon, a national third party alternative is more or less assured.

In the interval, conservatives of all stripes should try not to fall into an easy trap of faulting negative reality on other people’s conspiracies.  If anything, what we experience is a conspiracy of mass irrationality and error stemming from lack of vigilance.  The country and economy are far bigger than anyone who presumes to pull strings, whether the Fed or Wall Street or dozens of petty little czars friendly with the president. The good news is that our political system does and will yield to populist political action and particularly to truth in action. Integrity becomes the point of your spear, and there’s more in Scripture about putting on the whole armor of God, which is also highly recommended. It is within the power of the American people to reinstate good government during any given election cycle, but the price of freedom is still eternal vigilance as it always has been. If there is a conspiracy, or if there isn’t, consider what part of your life and how much effort you are willing to invest in fixing things, in making them better, and in fighting the multi-headed beast called Leviathan.

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