The Classic Liberal Blog

We've been exploring the idea of "winning" in politics, thus asking ourselves the question ... "Should we leave the Republican Party?"

While we haven't come to a definitive answer yet, we have established, that for any significant change to take place in the Republican Party, “we the people” must change the incentive system the candidates pursue. As Albert Jay Nock, in one sentence, summed up so many moons ago:

“It occurred to me then, how little important it is to destroy a government, in comparison with destroying the prestige of government.”

Disclaimer: Please take the time to read the entire 2-post essay, before drawing any conclusions. You never know ... I just may be heading in a different direction, than it first may appear.

It's fundamentally important, for all conservatives to keep in our mind the difference between being a “conservative,” and being a “Republican.” The two are not necessarily the same, and in accepting this truth, our chances of electing conservative politicians in the future will be greatly enhanced.

The 11th Commandment:

Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

Barry Goldwater's winning of the Republican Party nomination for president in 1964, marked one of the biggest success stories of the conservative movement to date. Yes, he lost in a landslide, but the 27,000,000 people who voted for him, became more determined than ever, resulting in the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan in 1980, whose platform was virtually identical to Barry Goldwater's.

In other words, the election of Ronald Reagan was (and still is), the single greatest success the conservative movement has achieved. And this happened, because Goldwater changed the political "incentive system," offering grassroots conservatives a genuine "choice," instead of a moderate "echo."

Yes, the propaganda we hear about conservatives needing to be more "moderate," is as old as the hills. Please read "A Moderate History of the G.O.P.", for further explanation.

To understand the trouncing of Goldwater properly, it's important to realize that the Republican Party Establishment didn't want Goldwater to win, and actively campaigned against him! As Phyllis Schlafly noted in her must-read "A Choice Not An Echo" (emphasis added):

[The Establishment] started from the premise that the Republican Convention must nominate anybody but Goldwater.

The New York Times (always the Establishment organ), published the following in the August 11, 1963, magazine edition (emphasis added):

The most bitter resistance to Senator Goldwater centers in the “eastern, internationalist power structure that for two decades has dictated Republican nominations. The members of that elite will not lightly relinquish their party to Barry Goldwater."

The Republican Party Establishment put all their effort into none other than Nelson Rockefeller, who in an August 3, 1963 interview, told Human Events that as “the frontrunner, as I was, it's natural to try to unite all wings of the party,” but since Goldwater had moved ahead of him, Rockefeller proclaimed, “I'm off the unity kick,” falsely labeling the Goldwater campaign as “ruthless, roughshod intimidation … cynical expediency … [and a] betrayal of principles.”

In 1966, Ronald Reagan (one of Goldwater's chief supporters) decided to run for governor of California, as a Republican. Knowing all to well what the Republican Establishment had done to Goldwater (parroting Democrat "talking points," and spreading obnoxious propaganda) 2 years earlier, the California GOP chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, established the "11th Commandment."

As Reagan explained in his autobiography, "An American Life":

The personal attacks against me during the primary finally became so heavy that the state Republican chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, postulated what he called the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

As you can see ... the “11th Commandment” was never intended to protect any given Republican from criticism. It was established to to protect Ronald Reagan, from being defeated by the attacks of the Republican Establishment!

Based on this brief review of Republican Party history then, we can further establish a more specific meaning of the "11th Commandment," which is to never speak ill of any genuine party conservatives, i.e. Constitutional originalists.*

To keep my posts a little shorter, I'll finish this up with one more post: "How to Elect a Conservative 2."

*Which by the way, includes guys like Ron Paul, while eliminating others, like Mitt Romney.