It is never a good thing to talk about elections in the middle of an election. I already know that, if there are responses to what I write, they will be mostly ad hominem. The conservative movement, however, is worth the criticism. As a political force, the conservative movement is dying in California, and it is dying because too many of our conservative leaders have allowed their personal agendas to trump the principles they claim to espouse.
Let me first explain what I mean. I don’t count consultants as conservative leaders. They will pick up the cause of whoever writes the check. One problem is that too many activists confuse consultants with principle. They believe that political consultants actually believe in more than the fifteen per cent they collect from their clients. The fact is that consultants serve candidates or their pocketbook, not causes. They are an important part of the political process but they cannot drive it. They have to feed their family first, and that need too often trumps principle. They are the tacticians, they are not the leaders. The two cannot be confused if we ever wish to create a majority.
Political leaders do set the agenda, they determine the principles to follow. Politicians are entrusted by the people who follow them with power and influence because they promise to pursue the principles they espouse. When those politicians confuse their personal agenda with principle, they are in fact betraying the people who have entrusted them with power.
Unfortunately, in too many elections, in too many places, we are watching our leaders subvert principle in pursuit of a personal agenda. Case in point, the Mimi Walters campaign for Senate in Orange County. I sat next to Mimi for two years in the Assembly. In every way, and at every turn, Mimi demonstrated her conservative leadership. Whether the issue was illegal immigration, property rights, taxes, size of government, or individual freedom, Mimi stepped up to the plate to fight for conservative principles. In fact, between Mimi, me, Chuck DeVore, and Doug LaMalfa, we used to refer to our part of the Assembly floor as the Bermuda Quadrangle. When it came time to oppose bills, the four of us would do take the lead. No one (except for me of course) had a better voting record on the issues important to conservatives, the movement, and, of course, California. In my opinion, today, she is critically important to the conservative movement over the long term. An articulate, intelligent, conservative woman in the State Senate is necessary for the long term health of our movement, and I know I can trust Mimi to set a solid conservative agenda, and pursue it for the right reasons.
Yet, some conservative leaders who ought to know better are opposing her, not because she isn’t a good conservative, or not trustworthy as a conservative leader, but because she isn’t serving their personal agenda. They are supporting an unknown, a person who has not been tested in the arena, because Mimi has not helped them pursue their personal agenda. What is worse, they are participating in a deliberate distortion of her record because she didn’t do what they wanted her to do. WIth all due respect to my conservative friends, it is this kind of behavior that has cost us elections time after time. I watched my friends’ personal, petty battles cost us ten seats in the Assembly over 3 elections. Pettiness cost us a majority in the Assembly in the past, pettiness might cost us a qualified conservative leader today.
There is a reason why we are in the minority in California. We are constantly wondering why we can’t win elections when we know that a majority of the people of this state agree with us. It really isn’t hard to figure out. We don’t deserve to be in the majority. We won’t deserve to be in the majority until we put principle above our petty rivalries and our personal ambition.
Whether it is an activist, a political leader, an opinion leader, or a candidate, we each have a responsibility to the cause that we claim is our motivation for our political ambition. I know we are all human, and sublimating our personal ambition and agenda is a difficult thing to do, but until we do it, we will continue to lose elections, and, until we do it, we will deserve to lose those elections. We have to earn that majority by convincing people that we exalt principle above personal power. Until the pursuit of principle, and not personal ambition, becomes the object of our political activity, people will have the right to think of us as no better than the Democrats. And, of course, they will be right.