I have been arguing that the central response of Christians to the ongoing disintegration of our culture must be to return to the worship of the triune God in such a way as that it becomes the seed of a renewed and rejuvenated Christian culture. That end cannot be accomplished by political means, as Scripture teaches, and cannot be accomplished by political means, as a brief commonsensical glance around the political room will tell you. When it happens, there will be political results, but political means will not have spiritual results. Christ is the Savior of our culture. Christ does not need our culture to rally around to save Him.
The Republican Party is corrupt. The Democratic Party is corrupt. And so why not go with the third party option, as with the Constitution Party? The problem is that there is no such thing as the Constitution Party. The Constitution Party today is split, splintered and fractured over issues like the participation of Mormons, and even some wavering on the life issue in at least one state organization. The basic problem is individualism and a resultant political sectarianism playing out in the civil realm. We cannot get anything right in the political sphere until we get it right in the Church first. When we get it right in the Church, other areas will follow. When Christians are worshipping God rightly, in spirit and in truth, we will then be in a position to reform an existing party, or establish a new one. Until then, we will continue to have trouble locating our own rear end, even if allowed to use both hands.
Now when the reformation in the Church comes, it may result in establishing a party very much like what the Constitution Party ought to have been, or it may result in the restoration of one of the corrupted mainline parties. We shall see.
In the weeks to come, we should see some very interesting jockeying for position among professed conservatives. With the Senate, the House, and the White House now all in Democratic hands, there is no natural elected leader of the conservatives, and nature abhors a vacuum. Among those who are elected to something (or those who would like to be), look for two groups to form — one consisting of outsiders gathering around Sarah Palin, and the other consisting of establishment Republicans, gathering around Newt Gingrich. We will see what happens there, but I see in Gingrich a retread of McCain. He is kind of on the conservative end of the establishment, but he will be their representative, and that establishment will not take this election as a basis for throwing out all the corruption. And on top of that, we really should stop looking for national moral leadershp from men who have betrayed their wives. In addition, if the Republican Party is serious about reform (as they aren’t), they will begin by stopping their employment of openly homosexual operatives.
The fact that the long knives came out against Sarah Palin right after this election was clear evidence of the first move being made in this upcoming political scramble.
In the world of punditry, there will be the same basic division — outsiders like Rush and Ann Coulter, and inside the Beltway figures like Bill Kristol or Fred Barnes. Consider it the difference between saloon-brawl conservatism and button-down WSJ conservatism.
And complete outsiders, like ourselves, you and I, need to worship the Lord tomorrow, and we need to sing the psalms, hear the sermon, and come to the Table. Rise up, O Lord, and scatter Your enemies.