‘VICHY REPUBLICANS’: Tea-Party Sell-Out and Pro-Life Surrender
The dirty little secret about the Republican candidate for Governor in Illinois is that he’s already governing like an Illinois Democrat. Bruce Rauner, like the prettiest girl in the school, usually gets whatever he wants. What makes him so effective? Republicans are desperate, Bruce is a billionaire, and nothing is as persuasive to a desperate loser as cold hard cash.
How does a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual rights candidate, who is cool with amnesty, raising the minimum wage, and “common sense” gun control, get the Republican nomination in Illinois? The Chicago way – he buys it.
But what about the tea-party and the values voters? Surely their principle rises above the level of bribery?
“Two years ago, Rauner also began making large cash payments to Republican, tea party, and other right-wing groups,” writes William Kelly for ChicagoNow.
In 2008, the same groups stood on hilltops and angrily railed, fists pumping in the air, against “pay to play” politics, Illinois corruption, and anyone connected with the name, “Rod Blagojevich.”
However, as soon Bruce Rauner showed up with his checkbook, these groups fell quickly in line. Freedomworks’ Matt Kibbe was among the first to sign-on to Team Rauner. Rauner paid other 501(c)3 groups like the Illinois Policy Institute and Jack Roeser’s Family Taxpayers Foundation more than a half million each and, in return, these groups helped organize his political ground game during the GOP primary.
There are some in the tea-party that just took a check – hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid to certain groups while others were conned into a phony “term-limits” fiasco. I guess John McCain will have to revise his slam against the tea-party, In Illinois we don’t have Hobbits – we have the Scottish Lords that betrayed William Wallace.
But the Pro-Life groups will remain steadfast, surely they won’t waver? I wish it were so.
“Bruce has been one of the largest supporters of the ACLU Reproductive Rights Project [abortion] for over 20 years,” writes Diana Rauner in a controversial email to reassure her pro-choice brethren that her husband is all in on infanticide. “
He has been a major supporter of Planned Parenthood [abortion] both locally and nationally for a similar time, such that Cecile Richards told her local staff in Illinois earlier this year, ‘If I hear anything negative about Bruce Rauner my head will explode.’
Bruce has been unequivocal in his support [hundreds of thousands of dollars] for reproductive rights [abortion] throughout a contentious Republican primary and publicly stated his support for reproductive rights [abortion] in primary debates. He won the primary despite his pro-choice [abortion] stance, in part by convincing pro-lifers to put aside their views on this issue [Life] in favor of economic ones [30 pieces of silver]. * [Emphasis Mine]
Yep, Moloch and Mammon are doing the Snoopy dance in Illinois this election season and influencing what otherwise have been faithful advocates.
Imagine if you would, you are an abolitionist. You hate slavery, you write against it, you give speeches against it, and you give your money and your time to express the horror of slavery to your indifferent neighbors, and to counsel those who have been scarred by the inhuman institution. Then imagine that the two biggest slave owners in the state, let’s call them Pat and Bruce, were running for Governor against each other. Would you vote for one over the other because one was better on taxes? Would you vote for one over the other for a bribe, large or small? Would you vote for Bruce over Pat if he promised to not work, whip, or sell his slaves on Sundays? What kind of a man, what kind of a person would you be, if you did?
One of the silver linings of this election, however, is that it has helped to separate the wheat from the chaff. If Pro-Life groups bowed down to Baal when there was virtually no pressure involved what will they do when true persecution comes?
Friends, if you are trying to decide just who is worthy of your support going forward, I’d suggest you pay attention to those groups who had a backbone and those who waved the white flag. To those who faltered: Not one more dime, not another minute of my time!
It has been disappointing to see some of my colleagues, well-meaning though they may be, lay down their arms. Though there are many in Illinois who haven’t tapped out on the fundamental issue of our day. Jim Finnegan, David Avignone, and Tommie Romano are among them and I’m sure that there are many others.
“I simply cannot, in good conscience, support a candidate who openly celebrates and flaunts his pro-abortion position while at the same time claiming to not have a social agenda,” declared David E. Smith, Executive Director of Illinois Family Action. “If pro-life voters really believe that preborn children have a God-given right to life, it should be unthinkable to reward and entrust that candidate with public office.”
Smith’s statement should be the standard message going forward to all who would dare trample underfoot the unalienable rights that are ensconced in our founding documents and the Republican Party Platform. This should be the default position for everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ. But some in the Pro-Life movement have a heart but lack a brain and a backbone.
Plug in any other activist and ask yourself if there would not be total outrage for what pro-life advocates are lying down and playing dead for all over the state.
Try and “earn” the support of gun advocates by telling them the other guy wants all your guns, but you’ll let them keep a shotgun in the home. See if they don’t surround your campaign headquarters with banners declaring, “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.” They certainly wouldn’t be voting, endorsing, or campaigning for you.
Try telling the gay activists, that the other guy is going to annul all their marriages but you will leave them civil unions. We’d have to dig you out from under a glitter avalanche.
Tell Catholics in Mexico that they can’t worship and they lock and load – “Viva Cristo Rey.” But pro-life advocates are so used to getting dismissed they lay down time and again and are gladly occupied with mere table scraps.
My Aunt, a missionary to Nigeria, used to go down to the dung pile and bring back babies to the Christian orphanage. She was a dear, sweet Baptist woman, but try to tell her that she could rescue the babies by the dung pile but not the ones by the river because those are for the crocodiles. Oh, and the reason she should vote for you is that “the other guy” wouldn’t let her rescue any babies.
If the Pro-Life leaders in Illinois had been the Hebrew midwives in Pharaoh’s Egypt, they would have given up the male children so they don’t lose their “seat at the table.”
The only leverage that any group has collectively is at the polls and with the purse strings, and we’ll never frighten billionaires like Bruce Rauner by holding onto our $25 check. If the current Republican Party had its way, they’d take our votes and our checks and tell us to get back into the closet until the next election.
Enough!
Christians must stand up and say this is unacceptable, we will not be unequally yoked when it comes to issues of life and you cannot buy our silence with crumbs. Republicans can carry out their evil, even if it is slightly less evil than “the other guy,” without us. You’ll have my prayers but not my money, my time, or my vote. The GOP can kill this state and wound this great country without my fingerprints on the murder weapon. I will not fellowship with darkness.
Unless Christians actually live and die like Christians this country will not survive. Until Catholics and Evangelicals act like the truly faithful in the pew on Sunday and in the voting booth on Tuesday, we will continue to slouch toward Gomorrah. The time is now! No election has ever been clearer.
A vote for Bruce Rauner is a vote for the status quo – a vote for a man who believes that life begins at conception, and that it’s just peachy to destroy it. So, what will you do? Vote for the perceived success in a short term temporal election or honor your spiritual election and calling as an Ambassador of Jesus Christ?
“When we no longer fear God and instead fear wicked men,” warns Josh Craddock, “what candidate wouldn’t we support provided the alternative is worse?”
As for me and my house . . .
Image: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration_en_France
