Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

$4.00 Gas is a Teaching Moment for Conservatives

America’s energy problems have been brought to us courtesy of the
environmental movement and their political allies –
liberal Democrats and timid or complacent Republicans

By Richard A. Viguerie

Americans are justifiably upset with the high cost of gasoline and everything that depends on fuel—electricity, heating oil, food, truck transportation, airline tickets, and more. 

Higher energy costs sets off a chain reaction that makes everything more expensive.

This public anger and alarm spells a major opportunity for conservatives because liberal policies and nonsensical regulations are directly responsible for higher energy prices. Energy prices provide a prime example to show how liberal policies are actually harmful to the poor, working families and the elderly – those whom liberal Democrats claim to be their “base.”

We conservatives must offer responsible, free-market solutions to this liberal mess. 

In other words, this is a “teaching moment” for conservatives. We have a major  opportunity to show the American public how the liberals have messed up their lives. High energy prices caused by bad liberal policies exemplify perfectly the differences between conservative principles and failed liberal ideology. 

We must act now.

The biggest problem in doing this is our mindset. The lack of Republican leadership has put conservatives on the defense for so long that we’re forgetting how to play offense. So we in the conservative grassroots have to do the job ourselves. We’ve done it before—think of Catastrophic Health Act in the 80’s and Hillarycare in the ’90s. These successful battles were led by grass roots activist – not by national Republican leaders. 

We’ve done it before and we can do it again.

We have to point out how the liberal worldview, which is that government—led by them, of course—needs to control everyone and everything. As with energy prices, central government control does not work.

In the attached article I give you the basic arguments we can use.   We need to employ these arguments in every venue open to us including: talk radio, TV, press releases, syndicated columns, op-ed articles, newsletters, media interviews, letters to the editors, blogs, emails, and resolutions at political party meetings/conventions, local government meetings, political debates, etc., etc.

We have an opportunity for conservatives to take ownership of the #1 issue in America this summer and advance the conservative cause while putting the political left on the defensive.

Conservatives must provide the leadership because the establishment, big-government Republicans, as usual, have run for the tall grass and are AWOL.

When you look at the solutions that Democrats are offering to “fix” the energy crisis – more taxes and even proposals for socialization of the oil industry – and see the mostly timid, defensive solutions being offered by the Republican leadership – conservatives can see clearly that we must provide the missing leadership through our grass roots activism. 

Let’s move on this one!

Please read the article, Liberalism Has Caused Our Energy Crisis--Free Markets Are the Solution, at
http://conservativehq.com/news-from-the-front/liberalscausedcrisis

Richard A. Viguerie

ConservativeHQ.com

9625 Surveyor Court

Suite 400

Manassas, Virginia 20110

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN