You stoop to their level and you are no better than they are…

The line in the title of this article was used by an RNC Blog member who disagreed with my approach to recapturing control of the United States Congress. It is used often when strong actions of any kind are either taken or even suggested. Something similar, i.e. “If we do that we will be just like them …”

Why did I decided to write this piece? I logged onto the Facebook GOP/RNC site forum. That was my first mistake. I had imagined that I would find Republicans who were ready to do anything legal to win back the Congress and the Senate. I expected to see rational people questioning the RNC, and asking why their responses to ObamaCare, TARP, Stimulus, Cap and Trade, The UN “One World “ conference, Tax increases, etc have either been tepid or non-existent. I expected a fired up electorate who wanted change – not BO’s change, but real change back to small government, constitutional themes, concerns about the second amendment, the Trillions of dollars in debt that we now owe, the weakened, and soon to be even weaker dollar, The takeover of GM, Chrysler and the banks. Not a word.

I expected to see some support for the tea parties, for the millions who have lost their jobs, often through no fault of their own. I expected to see outrage over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and calls the trial and imprisonment of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. There was no mention of these criminals, or the lives that they have impacted.

I suggested that the Republican Party had forgotten how to fight, and that they needed to take a few pages from the Democrats vis-à-vis learning more street fighter tactics to counter those of the Rahm Emanuals of the world. I suggested that we needed more of a “Go for the Jugular” attitude, so that we can WIN. I suggested that we be more like THEM.

Not a person agreed. I was accused of being a Democrat, or one who should be. It was said I was one of those people who gave Republicans a bad name. Actually I am a Conservative who belongs to the Republican Party. I am also frustrated that we seem to have grown another generation of country club Republicans. Republicans who actually believe that nothing more than talk, currying favor, keeping quiet, and ignoring the real issues because they may require getting “down and dirty” is the way to get the job done.

Most of what America has suffered at the hands of the Obama Administration in the last 10 months is Obama’s fault. Much is also the fault of Republicans who are in collusion with him. Republicans like those in the RNC.

Often, exploring what person or group of persons responds to something with this comment I find that, more often than not it is a Liberal, a moderate Republican or someone who actually believes that peace can be achieved by apologizing – like President Obama.

The idea that “being just like them” or “stooping to their level”, or anything similar is necessarily bad is an assumption that may not be warranted. The “them” that is discussed is seldom identifies in detail. The things that “them” do, is also many times disregarded.

Let’s start by looking at the current baseball playoff between the LA Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers lost. I imagine that if the Dodgers said “we must be just like them. We must execute better, we must win, and next year we must change how we play this game. We must play like them”. This is not seen as anything but good, clean competition.

What about when a pitcher on one team purposely throws a ball at an opposing pitcher’s head, and the next inning the other pitcher does the same. As a baseball player (in my youth) and a fan now, I have seen this done on a number of occasions, but never have I heard anyone say, “ Now we are just like ‘them’”. Why not? In baseball the second pitcher was sending a message, and that message was if you do this so will we, and we can do it better.

In the 1920’s, through the 70’s the underworld spent a great deal of time eluding the police and law enforcement in general. One reason is that the law enforcement then was very different than now. Police were not loath to “bust a few heads” to solve a crime. They did this for many reasons, but one was to be more like them – the criminals. Anyone who has seen photos of shootouts between police and the underworld saw that force was the rule. The police simply used the same tactics as the criminals, but did it better. They became “Just like them”. Unfortunately activists came along and said we cannot just shoot the bad guys, they need lawyers. What if one was innocent, or not as guilty? He or she needed to be protected from the police. That was necessary because some of the police, in the opinion of the ACLU types.

The police are first responders, and so are our military. They now respond not to nationally recognized force, but to insurgents, Al Qaeda, the Taliban etc. The latter in turn fight us in many ways including mass murder, de-capitation, rape, firing squads, plus the ever present IED’s. We are often at a loss as we try to figure out how to win a war without hurting anyone. We were not always like that. War was seen for what it was – War. The major objective was to kill more of the enemy than they killed of you. It was simple and effective, and usually saved lives in the long run.

The Second World War, and what the Germans did to England is a case in point. They bombed England mercilessly. We eventually bombed Germany quite thoroughly. We did what they did, but better. Anzio was similar. After taking casualties far bar beyond the norm, we simply decide that the best thing to do would be to annihilate the Germans. No quarter was asked, none was taken, Ditto for the entire campaign from Sicily to Rome. We won – they lost. We became like THEM, and we ended that part of the war, by killing more Germans than they did Allied soldiers.

But somehow that did not resonate for long. We fought to a stalemate in Korea, we actually won in Viet Nam, but let Walter Cronkite announce our loss, and Johnson believe him. The entire American government became like them – the media.

Fast Forward. So we now enter the 8th year of a war or two that could have been won in 1 to 2 years. Our forces have fought gallantly, but are hamstrung by lawyers and do-gooders who would see a rabid dog as a mistreated animal who simply need his or her ears scratched. So many atrocities have been perpetrated against our military, and yet we are told, be nice, no strong action, no shooting until you are certain the man with the AK-47 is an enemy, and for sure no torture, no matter what. We don’t want to be like them. Why not? Being like them may have shortened the war, and more importantly saved American lives.

Now all that philosophy is part and parcel of our entire political gestalt.

We will never be able to save a continent again, because we cannot save ourselves from those who have made us but a shadow of the country who set nations free.


I leave with Dante’s great line “Abandon all Hope ye who enter here…”