“As long as we have party leaders who are using our most sacred principles as rhetorical tools to help them obtain power…principle will be betrayed and power will be abused to protect and defend baby killers, judicial tyrants, foreign dictators, and the next Congressman Foley of our day” -- Randall Terry

Contact: Society for Truth and Justice, 904-819-9450

OPINION, Nov. 3 /Standard Newswire/ -- The following is submitted for publication.  Randall Terry is available for comment.

Principle First? Or Party First?
Why the Republican Party is in Deep Trouble

By Randall A. Terry

President, Society for Truth and Justice

(And a Lifelong Republican)

The Angel of Truth is often like a hybrid of Family Intervention anger meets Jerry Springer chaos meets Jon Stewart irony meets SNL comedy meets C-Span analysis meets Hurricane Katrina. It is liberating, refreshing, dreadful, funny, fearful, cleansing, chaotic, and charismatic…and perhaps above all, uncontrollable. 

The Naked Truth is at once drawing us with her reason, and repelling us with her conclusions; wooing us with the love of Justice, and terrifying us with the cost of Liberty; Truth arms us for battle, calls us to war, and then brings out the scales to see who is ready for epic struggles, and who is found wanting. 

My purpose is to show how and why the Republican Party is self-destructing. Let us begin with a recent history lesson from England that illustrates the point.

Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain (and their dealings with Herr Hitler and The Third Reich) embody the two messages and two audiences with which we are dealing.

From 1934 to 1939, Winston Churchill was clearly and forcefully telling the truth: that Germany was arming for a cataclysmic conflict with all of Europe; that Hitler was a mad dog that needed to be encircled and destroyed; that England’s survival was at stake. As bizarre as it seems to us 70 years later, the mainstream press and the political powers of England successfully blackballed and marginalized Churchill, vilifying him as a lunatic and a warmonger. 

By contrast, George MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, and finally Neville Chamberlain -- Prime Ministers of England between 1934 and 1940 -- told the British people that they had nothing to fear from Germany in spite of the glaring evidence to the contrary. They were praised by the press, and loved by much of England, because they said what the foolish wanted to hear; they sang the siren song of "peace in our times."

The crowning, damning apex of these men’s foolishness was the private summit between Adolph Hitler and Neville Chamberlain in Munich Germany in September of 1938, after which Chamberlain insisted that England's security had been assured and obtained. Chamberlain came home to cheering throngs holding a handwritten note on a single piece of paper signed by himself and Hitler, in which Hitler pledged to not go to war with England. In retrospect, if it was not so tragic, it would make a great Saturday Night Live skit.

Churchill condemned the entire Munich Peace Agreement as a charade; a deceitful stroke of genius from Hitler, designed to buy time for him to further his military agenda. Churchill insisted that the Munich Agreement had insured war, not prevented it, because it gave Germany more time to develop the weapons of war.  (Think of Iran and Pakistan and North Korea today.)

Churchill was right. He was telling the truth; Chamberlain and the above mentioned prime ministers were in succession (knowingly and unknowingly) deceiving the British people. They betrayed those they were charged to serve and protect. Churchill is now a hero; Chamberlain, Baldwin, and MacDonald are disgraced and all but forgotten.

The level of strain and struggle between Churchill and MacDonald, then Baldwin and Chamberlain in succession was not because they were in separate political parties; but because they were all members of the same party – the Conservative Party.

In fact, the bitter rancor that existed between Churchill and the leaders of the Conservative Party was precisely because Churchill was a Conservative, yet he would not repeat the “Conservative Party line.” He ignored the “talking points” of the party leaders. Hence, they accused him of being "disloyal" to the Conservative party.

What was Churchill's great crime?  He put principle ahead of party.

Churchill put the freedom of England ahead of the “unity” of the Conservative Party; Churchill -- though a member of the Conservative Party -- put his allegiance to the truth – stark, naked, chaotic, truth – above his allegiance to the current leaders of his party.

But it was because of his commitment to truth that he was able to be a Voice in the Wilderness – a “prophet” of things to come; under his watchful care and adamant perseverance, the lamp of Truth was not extinguished. And thank God, because he remained faithful at his post – even when mocked and vilified by members of his own party – he earned the credibility to lead England through her darkest hours when all his discarded warnings came to pass. He became the Prime Minister that defied Germany’s aggression, and led England to victory (with the help of her American Cousins!)

To make this tale more tragic – and applicable to our present day Republican Party – in England's years of folly there were members of the upper echelon of the Conservative Party who agreed with Churchill's assessment about Germany, but refused to say so publicly for fear of the Party leadership.

They choose to preserve cordial relations with those in power who would rather repeat a lie than tell the simple truth: Germany was arming, and Europe was in danger.

Conservative party insiders had seen Prime Ministers recall and fire two consecutive ambassadors to Germany in the mid-19 30s– ambassadors whose crimes were that they warned the British government that Germany was indeed rearming, and intended to make war with her neighbors. (In other words, Churchill was right.) They were sent into political exile for telling the truth.

Others saw the fate of the honest ambassadors, and like whipped puppies, muted their own voice of truth, and dutifully recited the "talking points" of the Party leadership. That way the political calm was not disturbed, and the Party appeared strong, unified, and ready for the next election.

All of this “party unity” paid off. Through some very turbulent years, they maintained the majority in parliament, and hence control of the government. In fact, towards the end of his tenure as Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin admitted in a troublingly honest speech that the reason the British Government had not warned British citizens of the growing threat that the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) posed to Britain's security was because the Conservative Party Leadership were afraid that they would lose an upcoming election.

Baldwin confessed to having put the Party’s grasp on power ahead of his nation’s security.

They put Party ahead of Freedom; They put Party ahead of National Security; They put Party ahead of Principal; They put Party ahead of Truth; And in its most insidious light, they put themselves ahead of the very security and survival of their nation.

As conservatives, they constantly spoke of the economic woe that would overcome England if the Liberal Party's economic policies took root should the conservatives ever lose power. A robust economy and economic prosperity were more important to them than truth and security; they were gambling their survival for a good “1^st quarter.”

And guess who was a big trading partner England?

Prior to WWII, Germany’s number one trading partner was Great Britain. And guess what England’s number one export was to Germany…

Scrap metal. That’s right…scrap metal. The material needed to build warplanes and war ships and bombs and torpedoes.

Under the leadership and trade policies of the Conservative Party, England was selling Germany the raw material that Germany would “return to sender” in the form of fighters, bombers, bombs, shrapnel, bullets, submarines, and torpedoes.

The parallels between England’s Conservative Party of yesterday and the Republican Party of today scream so loudly that they barely need explanation.

Are we going to put "party loyalty" ahead of loyalty to justice, righteousness, the lives of the innocent, and the future security of our nation?

Let us tell the truth in hopes that it will

Arouse the sleeping, inspire the vigilant, warn the foolish,

And safeguard our children's future.

The Republican Party is in a crisis because it has self-consciously and systematically betrayed the fundamental principles of Truth, Justice, and Liberty while claiming to be the political guardian of those very principles.

The Foley scandals and the crisis they have brought to the voting booth is a small pocket of political infection that is part of an ethical infection that is racing through the entire Republican Party. Our infection – I say “our” because I am a Republican - is an ethical infection. We have an ethical infection so severe, that it brought on a fever, causing us to lose our ability to reason, to think clearly and justly... an ethical infection so widespread that it could cripple us or even cost us the life of our current body politic.

The great crime of our Republican Party in this hour is that our current leaders and strategists have put addiction to power ahead of loyalty to principal; worse yet, they have betrayed the core principles of our nation's foundation as well as the core principles of morals and ethics handed to us from the Almighty Himself -- all in the pursuit of power.

Think of the epic life and death struggles in which we are entrenched:

The undeniable threat of Islam against the U.S. and the entire free world;

Securing our Borders from Illegal immigration;

The holocaust of millions of unborn children;

The persecution, imprisonment and murder of Christians in nations that are our “allies,” such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt;

The persecution, imprisonment and murder of Christians in the nation that is our largest trading partner – Communist China;

The “homosexual marriage” juggernaut;

The judiciary at the federal and state levels is destroying self-government;

The patently immoral deficit with which we have saddled (or enslaved) our children;

Can anyone honestly say that Republican Leaders in

Government and in the Party leadership at the State and

Federal levels have made any of these things a true priority?

They talk of these things to get votes, but what are they actually doing? Republican rhetoric is one thing, Republican behavior is another. 

The Republican rhetoric of Life and Liberty and Justice and Conservatism and Traditional Marriage and Border Security has proven little more than a tool to obtain the ultimate goal -- power.

In that light, Life and Liberty and Justice, and our physical and economic security are not the goals; they are the tools to be used and discarded once the goal of power has been obtained. Those words and themes and pictures are the “hot buttons” to be pressed to get the Pavlov Dogs of the Religious and Conservative Right to vote for their Republican masters, because the Right is the margin of victory to obtain power.

Consider Congressman Foley again one brief moment. It is clear that fellow Republicans -- in high places of Congress -- knew that he was an open homosexual and a child predator. Why didn't they do anything?

Because their goal is power, not justice.  Republican power players cared more about keeping a Republican in power, keeping a Republican majority, and avoiding a scandal than they did about protecting teenagers. They use the rhetoric of “pro-family” but they have surrendered to the homosexual agenda on so many levels, they have already lost the fight.

Republican leaders are helping and protecting fellow Republicans who strive to continue the murder of over one million babies a year; they trample the commandment given by God Himself -- "thou shalt not murder" in their public policy decisions while they spend our money to help get Republican baby-killers (dare I call them that?) re-elected, even while claiming to support the "culture of life;"

Republican leaders are helping and protecting fellow Republicans who would redefine and even destroy the sacrament and covenant of marriage given to us by the Almighty Himself;

Republican leaders are lying to us about the nature and history of Islam -- whether through outrageous ignorance or slavery to political correctness; they're protecting dictators (as long as they are friendly to Republicans) who imprison and murder our Christian brothers and sisters around the globe - Christian men and women who simply want to serve the Almighty in peace and freedom;

Republican leaders have enslaved us to Middle Eastern (i.e., Islamic) oil, even while they tell us that they want the energy independence in the United States;

Hence, if Republican leaders think it is necessary to allow an open homosexual and child predator who is a Republican congressman to remain in office, why not do it?  They have already committed treachery against Truth and Justice at much higher levels; they have turned their backs to and shaken their fists at God Himself.

These Republican leaders – who deceitfully and deliberately parrot John Paul II’s words of the “Culture of Life” – are already helping and protecting baby killers and dictators and murderers; why not help and protect a Republican child predator as well?

Like British PM Chamberlain and their other ethical predecessors already mentioned, these Republican Leaders put Party ahead of Freedom; they put Party ahead of National Security; they put Party ahead of Principal; they put party ahead of Life and Marriage, and they put Party ahead of Truth – all for the sake of Power.

We should ask ourselves a simple question: who is more evil?  British General Cornwallis -- who is openly and honorably serving his flag and his country?  Or Benedict Arnold -- an American general who is secretly using his power to serve his country's enemies?

Or to put it in contemporary terms -- Who is more evil? A Democrat who tells you in clear terms that he intends to kill children?  Or a Republican who promises you that they want to protect children, thereby obtaining power with your support and friendship, who then deliberately uses his power to help Democrats and Republicans kill children?

What will happen in this election cycle and others to soon come? 

The most probable is that many conservatives will stay home. They simply won't vote. Or -- as crazy as it may seem -- they will consider voting for Democrats who are moderates (and who also use and abuse the rhetoric of faith and family), or they will consider voting for third-party candidates.

Down the road, people who put principle first will consider starting yet another “third party” that is committed to principal. Many have already stopped giving any money to the National Republican Party and the State Republican Party. Instead, they are giving money to candidates who pass genuine and just litmus tests. (If you are a baby killer, you do not get any money.)

For those who want true victory for principle, another option is simply this: God-fearing men and women who actually take Life and Liberty and Justice as defined by Eternal Truth seriously - not just as rhetorical tools to deceive the masses and seize power – they should become the servants and leaders of the Republican party apparatus at every level.

Until and unless the Republican Party -- and that includes all of us who are Republicans -- until we decide that we will truly honor and uphold the principles we profess, this crisis will not subside.  It will deepen. And we will – dare I say justly – keep losing elections. As crazy as it sounds, the party could even self-destruct. Does the Whig party ring a bell?

This is certain: As long as we have treacherous, duplicitous, Machiavellian party leaders who are using our most sacred principles as rhetorical tools to help them obtain power; as long as we fall for their lines, and allow ourselves to be seduced for our money, our labor, and our votes, principle will be betrayed and power will be abused to protect and defend baby killers, judicial tyrants, foreign dictators, and the Congressman Foleys of our day.

Randall A. Terry

President, Society for Truth and Justice.

October, 2006

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Read more thought-provoking material at www.RandallTerry.com; Call 904 819 9450 to schedule and interview with Mr. Terry