I just found this after 5 years, first posted at TownHall.com, Dec 2007. As Limbaugh says, I told you so.
A couple of conservative readers have taken me to task over Moses Sands’ article about the failure of the Constitution’s “protectors”. They cite the growth of conservatism in almost every demographic and the constant success of conservative books, and conservative-themed films as proof that conservatism is on the march. Rush Limbaugh cites the growth of his “Rush-babies” as a reflection of what’s in store for the next generation of conservatism.
I have Moses’ notes on the subject but I also have Bernard Chumm to thanks for some illuminating speculations about the “dark horses” of the coming generation of voters, the millenials. On reflection I think conservative optimism is overblown.
The question is, is it fatally so?
Of course, it’s true, according to conservatives, that the rise of the traditional poor (urban blacks for the most part) into the middle class has begun to snowball, as predicted…but only fractionally. But inasmuch as it is usually a two-three generation process before those poor begin to drop things such as (Democrat) party loyalty and voting patterns, or the baggage-load of guilt the Left still is able to make sure they carry with them to the suburbs, the economic numbers don’t necessarily indicate a shift in politics, in the near-term…and the near-terms is all the time some leftist planners need.
Some conservatives miss the end game entirely, and that is a day when votes won’t matter anymore. That’s where the Constitutional battle lines are really drawn, whether the process itself can survive that long.
At the same time, more and more CINO-Republicans seem to be content with the old Democrat Party idea that it is just as good a notion to decorate the hole of poverty with fine furnishings, two television sets, at least one car, and carte blanche coupons for all the Pepsi’s, potato chips and moon pies in the world…as it is to throw down a ladder, which has always been a bedrock conservative position. It seems, for many in that hole, into their third generation now, a ladder won’t do, any more, but rather a hoist…and as Moses contends, modern conservatives aren’t into, well, the heavy lifting of protecting the Constitution.
Moses’ complaint has been that conservatives, “the protectors”, seem content to show the poor the ladder out, then head out to the golf course, escaping the tougher duty of re-acquainting life’s losers about the basic building blocs of freedom, the House, once out of that hole. That climb up the ladder is only the first step, and while a century ago, it might have sufficed, once out and on their own, to “…cut ‘em loose, sink or swim…” that’s no longer enough to establish the link between the House and the Constitution.
And inasmuch as ignorance of the blueprints of the national House and Constitution constitutes a part of what it mans to be among “life’s losers”, that demographic seems to be creeping up the economic and educational ladder every year, again in the Left’s favor.. “A Norwegian dairy farmer a hundred years ago knew more about building and passing on his House than most lawyers do today…whose own House will be lucky to make it into the second generation.”
The Protectors’ jobs don’t end at the legislature’s door, but rather, in the street, with sleeves rolled up and dirt under the fingernails. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. But conservatism, as Moses laments, no longer has any non-com’s out there on the hustings.
Left-wing math seems to back Moses’ claim.
The Left has been able to dilute the impact of the “risen poor”, especially blacks, by hamstringing them with guilt about those left behind, and also by ensuring that once they are in the middle class, they still will have no real guides to the blue-prints of the House envisioned by the Founders and the Constitution. Moses once told me, “If I thought they were capable of it, I’d swear “those guys” (what he called the Left and other bad guys collectively) were behind the economic success of conservative talk-shows and book sales, since it sure has taken their minds off the urgency of the national cancers. Me? Damned if I’d find time to play golf if I knew my golden goose was gonna die in few years.”
Moreover, while doing their best to neutralize the drift into the middle class by their economic base, the Left also is importing new poor.
Oh yeah? Much of the new immigrants, especially Latin Americans, including illegals, seem to have that classic understanding of how to build the House that was possessed by the nation-builders from eastern Europe a century ago.
Indeed they do, including a strong conservative foundation in religious faith. All these are conservative, not left-wing foundations. Aren’t they at least a wash? So then why are the Lefties so desirous of their company?
What any conservative on the ground, (VB in 2013:Tea Parties may be the only ones..and who listens to them) could tell you is that what the new immigrants lack, and what the Left seems able to keep from them, in public education especially, is any understanding of the link between the House and the Constitution…which after all, is the real target of the Left.
So, while Latinos will come here and immediately set down stakes in the local economies, doing everything from cutting grass to hanging dry-wall…they will also avail themselves of every state and local benefit the local the governments can dole out, never understanding, until it is too late, (somewhere in the next generation) that state doles are antithetical to the procreation and continuation of their House.
By the time they finally see a real House emerging in their lives, they will already notice all sorts of people hanging around their dinner table (a common Moses Sands theme) expecting to be fed. Most new immigrants will never know from where this great blessing called the House came from.
On balance, then, G W Bush’s instincts were all wrong, for the good life he wants to see offered to immigrants will translate only into permanent dwellings, and not any transcendent ideal of the House of additional Constitutional protection, because the Left controls both state hand-outs and the public schools, insuring “America, the ideal” will never get credit for any of their good fortune.
Finally, there’s the dark horse in this race for supremacy at the polls. For every Rush Baby that arises from the millennial generation, there will be a thousand children, raised almost entirely by their mother, educated in public schools, and in a public moral environment that leans more and more each passing day toward self-indulgence and narcissism.
To the extent that mom is also a civic minded individual, and since these pottykinder are middle-class and suburban versus the rural or ethnic stereotype…they will also vote…in increasing numbers as they age. Since there seems to be no real effort from our “protectors” to compete with the popular culture at eye level, or re-teach the building blocks of the House, there is no reason to believe this demographic will not continue to grow.
The math doesn’t lie. It only figures, at some time in the not too distant future we will be faced with the prospect of a majority of voters in America being entirely indifferent to any ideal associated with human liberty or the U S Constitution.
At that time the American democracy becomes a straw house on shifting sand.
