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The GOP swept the 2014 midterm elections! Well done… but now we need a plan.  And shaking hands with the other side would be a bad way to start.

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Well, call it a shellacking! To use the term emperor Obama used back in the 2010 midterm elections, the GOP, the Republican Party, we had a significant electoral victory last Tuesday on election day. Yes!

Welcome to the Feet To The Fire program, the new voice of Conservative dissent. This was a decisive, outspoken electoral sweep, a wave. Now come on Juan Williams, seriously, from FOX News, arguing with the other anchors about whether or not this was a wave. The Dems got smoked! Are we nitpicking over descriptors because you guys are afraid to admit what happened? In the words of Hillary Clinton, “Well, what difference does it make?”

Look, the Democrats lost everything! How about landslide, does that work? Republicans got the Senate back, we gained in the house to World War II levels in the House of Representatives. And we gained tones of gubernatorial seats (that means governor seats). We were looking at Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, these are blue states! And we won these states and more. Now, it’s true, there were a couple of painful losses. How in the world does Al Franken win a first term let alone a second term? And our sincere condolences to Mike McFadden who lost that Senate race, seriously. And I gotta ask, Minnesota what were you thinking out there? But all in all, we have at least for a moment some electoral relief in this country and maybe, just maybe, some better government?

Which leads to today’s program. We will be holding Republicans feet to the fire. All of them, but especially Establishment, inside-the-DC-beltway, Republicans. Now I was musing over what topic to do next. There’s such a broad range, so much to say, and liberals are so wrong in so many ways. There’s an endless supply of material. You know, a buddy asked me, “Hey, could you keep this up?” And I laughed, and I said, “As long as there’s liberals and the forces of evil in the world, yes, we will keep this up.” But I thought regarding this program, you know what? Let’s keep things current, let’s stay with the election theme. It just happened, and it’s on everyone’s mind.

Last program was a pre-election analysis of why we need liberals and Democrats to always lose now. This will be a post-election analysis: what do we do next as a Republican winners? And I know everyone has been commenting on this throughout all the media, so I am going to chime in. And the reason everyone’s commenting is because, especially in conservative media, we are all excited but very nervous about the possibilities. On the one hand, there’s the possibility of great success, or, on the other hand, this can be tragically a wasted opportunity and failure. For us conservatives, the country, our way of life, is hanging in the balance. This is always the case because of the left’s unrelenting cultural onslaught but now even more so when we have momentary relief, a shift of power in our favor and great potential to change course. How we move forward means a whole lot for what kind of country we’re going to be. Which is why we’re going to be holding Republicans fee to the fire. We can’t have more of the same, GOP. It’s not gonna work.

Well then, what do we need? And I’m glad you asked! We need to fight for many things, but I want to note three things. I want to note 3, listen, number one, top priority, nonnegotiable, no compromise, don’t moderate, has to get done, don’t budge, platform positions for the GOP to hold to as we move into 2015 with the new Republican mandate. But before I mention those, before I mention those particular positions, I want to first articulate what needs to be our guiding principle in general as we seek to implement better government throughout the entire country. So this program will be general principle for the Republican majority, and I hope they’re listening, and the next program will be the particulars, specific platform positions to stand for.   So you have to tune back in.

Alright, now here is the guiding principle:

Do not compromise.

We need to stop compromising on anything altogether with the left. Compromise for some reason in our society and culture, especially in politics, has become this idealist goal, this golden virtue. But really, it’s more like some sort of strange golden calf. It’s a false idol because it’s a hoax, and it’s beginning to make me sick. And it’s getting very irritating. You know, I should do a whole program on the vice of political compromise! Hey, wait great idea, I’ll do it right now!

Alright listen, compromise on trivial things like what’s for lunch is admirable, keeps the peace. That’s totally cool because you want to maintain peace over something trivial, like what’s for lunch. But in the arenas we are talking about: big life issues, weightier matters, anything worth actually having a debate over, like politics or philosophy culture civics ethics truth, liberty – compromise, unfortunately, sorry to say, don’t mean to sound harsh, it’s for the weak, the unprincipled, the cowardly, the wimpy, the unscrupulous. We got to get rid of this false notion, this presumption, that compromise is necessarily, inherently, a virtuous thing. At best it’s neutral as a potential strategy but certainly isn’t a virtue, and generally speaking, it’s a vice. It’s ignoble, carrying the connotation of being spineless, giving in. Think Nebraska’s Cornhusker Kickback: and that was additional federal monies promised to Nebraska that got Senator Ben Nelson to come around and give his crucial vote to support and pass Obama care. That’s the reputation compromise carries. Compromise may sound good on paper because it means half winning, but it also means half losing! Which means the opponent, the other side, the LEFT, gets half of their rotten agenda accomplished. And if you listen to all the talking heads in politics and media these days, it sounds like we need compromise just for the sake of compromise, just for the sake of saying that we did it. And that’s completely ridiculous! What’s the point of that? Listen, heroes and leaders don’t compromise with evil. They resist, it beat it, and win. Or they die trying.

And that’s what’s really funny about this “compromise movement.” When’s the last time you heard about a famous historical figure of compromise? When’s the last time you or anybody else referenced a great leader or person of prominence or literary character who moderated, folded under pressure, gave up the battle? “Wow, what an epic hero and character to emulate! He gave in and made a deal with the devil. He almost won, but in the end, he kind of won. Wow, what a guy! Hope I’m like him someday.” What?! Who says that? Historical heroes, literary heroes, biblical heroes, great leaders, always are men and women of principle. That’s what makes them stand out. Rosa Parks on the bus, right? “I am not moving, I am not getting out of this seat!” Uncompromising principle. Its the Patrick Henry types, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” That is such an epic statement because of its raw, stalwart position. No flexibility, stand for righteousness, for the just cause, bravely, no matter what the cost, even unto death. That is so appealing to our notions of heroism! It’s the heroic knight who will stop at nothing because of his faithful love to rescue his damsel in distress. Softies and wimps get scared of the dragon, give up, run the other way, or cut a deal. “Hey, uh, Dragon, uh, it’s cool. I’ll just visit the princess once in a while when you feel like letting me. Otherwise, you can just go ahead and keep her locked up. That’s the complete opposite of words we value like fortitude, character, faithfulness, staying strong under pressure.

Now if you want a better picture of that, you gotta read Peggy Noonan’s biography of Ronald Reagan called When Character Was King. And one of my favorite parts of that book and one of the greatest historical moments that embodies fortitude and character, no compromise, is when Reagan was meeting with Gorbachev. And they were having this great and long meeting. And all Reagan’s advisers said, “Look, give up on the strategic defense initiative. And if that comes up, just give in to Gorbachev’s demands.” And the meeting was going along great, and finally, at the very end, Gorbachev goes, “Oh, and by the way, you guys got to get rid of SDI.” Now if you’re not familiar SDI, that was the fancy name for what we generically called Star Wars, which was the capability to basically blast any nuke coming into our country right out of the sky. It was a defensive initiative that would basically keep us completely protected from any nuclear attack. And nobody else had it so it created an imbalance in the Cold War. Now, you’ve got to understand, this is the cold war. The Earth is at stake, and essentially everything is hanging in the balance ‘cause everybody’s worried about total nuclear destruction between the US and the Soviet Union! So what does Reagan do? Well, this is why we all love Ronald Ragan, and why he’s such a great example of an awesome leader. He stood up and walked right out of that meeting. That’s character, that’s principal, and that’s what we need in our leaders.

Now for the history buffs out there. The only guy I can think of as a potential appealing compromiser from history would be, obviously, Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser or the Great Pacificator. Yeah, that’s a swell name. Alright, I’ll give him a break. Early 19th century American statesman who tried to save the union. And sure, he was a good guy, but his work was only temporarily useful. All he did was maintain a semblance of unity between the north and south in the early 19th century and postpone the inevitability of Civil War. Eventually, principal won out. The only way to resolve the issue was not to shake hands with evil and compromise with slavery but to defeat it in a violent bloodbath known as the Civil War. So really compromise historically has never been a significant virtue, except in the case of maybe the days lunch menu. And even then, it may still be worth not compromising if someone is pulling for bologna.

Alright, so we say to the Republicans, no more talk of silly compromise. You don’t compromise with or shake hands with the devil. You undermine him, you hinder him, create gridlock, and impede his progress for the sake of justice and what is truly right. And that’s also why it is curious to hear people complain about “gridlock” in Washington. You hear this, “There’s nothing getting done, sigh, I just want leaders who will get something done.” And that’s completely ridiculous! Well, yeah there’s gridlock. That’s what we want when men are pursuing a wicked agenda for the nation. We want gridlock so that the agenda they are pushing and pursuing doesn’t get done, doesn’t move forward, it gets stopped. Again, think Rosa Parks, right? If she was only concerned with not interrupting the city bus route, if she was only concerned with moving things along, moving things forward, getting things, done she’d have just moved her seat and moved on with life. And yet she would’ve failed to deal a major blow to racism in the south. Or on the other hand, what do we want, our side to fold and give in?

But then again, you hear this protest, “Well, we’ve got to get something done!” What does that even mean?!   No, we certainly don’t, not if it’s bad government. That makes no sense, whatsoever. NOTHING is better than moving in the wrong direction. Staying the same, even if the same isn’t good, is certainly better than making things worse. Look, we’ll remove the gridlock when somebody comes up with a bright idea, and then we’ll implement it. Governing for the sake of governing always ends with one thing: more government. And that’s always bad.

So, conclusion? For the GOP moving forward. Compromise with the wrong side? No. Gridlock to stop their progress? Yes. And that needs to be the philosophy behind Republican policy.

Gridlock is good. Stand firm and stop the LEFT and Emperor Obama’s agenda as much as humanly possible. Look, with Congress, you’ve got the power of the purse now, and you’ve got majorities in both houses. There should be a bill against his agenda, impeding his agenda, every day. And compromise is bad. Don’t compromise to let them push an agenda forward, even if it’s Liberalism LITE, liberalism but a mild version. Look, we don’t want any form of their bad government. Compromise is not good for preaching in the church, and it’s not good for government or public policy.

And this brings us to the actual positions we now need to take as Republicans, the particulars. The Republicans need clarity, and they need to implement their agenda. They need to articulate conservative, Republican government in a convincing way and then move that forward in Washington. And we’ll talk about those positions next.

But until then, let justice me down like waters, America, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Don’t believe the hype out there! compromise isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Actually, it’s generally a pitiful vice. Principle is better, a noble virtue. It’s standing your ground courageously. So speak up, and it stand out for justice! Because that’s the American way. And let’s hold their feet to the fire…

{increase volume, sweet bluegrass music with backbeat just because, on principle, it’s a fitting melody for the pioneer sprit, rugged individualism, the spirit of leadership, and not going with the crowd.}