Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
Through my mother, I am Irish enough to appreciate a glorious lost cause. My patron saint, St. Jude Thaddeus, is the patron saint of lost causes. Through my father, I am Spanish enough to uncritically love Miguel Cervantes’ flawed Don
Quixote de la Mancha, because in tilting at windmills he found his best destiny.
It is thrilling to commit to an ideal, without any compromise with the corrupt powers and principalities of this fallen world. Like an ardent youth in the first flush of fervent faith, a fighter in the arena can find a meaning for his existence.
Our world would be a much darker place if brave individuals refused to risk their all in seemingly unwinnable fights. Without the boldness of courageous and creative individuals, we would still be savages.
There are few things as emotionally fulfilling as embracing a cause that is as unlikely as it is illustrious. However, it is not enough to blindly follow the first shiny thing to attract our mind’s eye.
We must scrupulously study what is really going on in any situation before we intervene. We are rightly accountable for the effects of our choices.
Politics is uniquely seductive to the kinds of emotional impulsiveness that lead to unintended consequences and to regret. Myriad demagogues call out with countless Siren songs touting simple and emotionally satisfying answers to
complex problems. Life is never that simple!
Good citizenship requires each of us to reflect seriously on our life experiences, cultivate our common sense, educate ourselves historically, and work hard to inform ourselves about the details of current controversies. We owe it to
everyone who sacrificed to make us free to be thoughtful, active, and informed citizens when we vote. Doing so is our most basic civic duty.
For over two hundred years, the United States has benefitted from a winner-take-all two-party system that strictly divides power between competing levels and branches of government. This Constitutional system has prevented various utopian revolutions from stealing our liberty.
As before our Revolution and Civil War, we Americans are now deeply divided. Today’s Democrats openly advocate Communism. Moderate Republicans prioritize their loyalty to an unelected permanent government over the wishes
and best interests of voting citizens. In every election today, nothing less than the ongoing existence of American freedom is at stake.
In this environment, the commentator Tucker Carlson has begun a Third Party. He is formidable because he communicates his ideas with vigor and clarity. His policy solutions are far too isolationist, pro-Russia, pro-China, anti-Semitic, and conspiratorial to appeal to me.
Even if I agreed with his ideas, however, I would oppose a Third Party. Instead, the Republican Party must be freed from the dominance of its pusillanimous moderates. This is achievable, as Brent Regan’s KCRCC has demonstrated
locally, and the Presidencies of Reagan and Trump have proven nationally.
This is an evolution rather than a revolution. It demands resolute patience. If successful, Carlson’s Third Party will split the Constitutional vote precisely as H. Ross Perot did in 1992 and 1996. More than anything else, it was Perot’s
personal feud with George H.W. Bush that caused him to run. His vanity gave us two terms of corrupt Bill Clinton.
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt did exactly the same thing. In his feud with William Howard Taft, Roosevelt formed the (Progressive) “Bull Moose” Party, split the Republican vote, and gave power to the worst President in American history,
Woodrow Wilson.
In 1912 and 1992, both “Teddy” Roosevelt and Ross Perot indulged in impatience and emotionalism. They split the votes of the Republican majority. Thanks to them, both Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton became President with
just 42% of the vote. Americans still suffer from the effects of their Presidencies to this day.
Today, the United States can ill afford indulging in dreams of a Third Party. Its only effect will be to give a victory to today’s Communist Democrat Party that they could never earn otherwise.
Be wise, Conservative Americans. Reject Tucker Carlson’s Third Party. Instead, recapture the Republican Party, win elections, and keep making America great.
