<p>No, I do not mean Republicans and Democrats. I mean that we are individually hammocked between two political teams &#8212; our partisan team and our philosophic team. I am on the conservative and Republican teams. Others are on the Democrat and progressive teams. A person can actually be a partisan Republican and a philosophic progressive or a partisan Democrat and a philosophic conservative – it is possible, but hard to imagine these days.</p>
<p>Our politics depend on which team we give dominance. I am a conservative Republican. My first team loyalty is to core conservative principles of limited government, low taxes and all those inalienable rights articulated in the Constitution. Our Founders gave us a near-perfect conservative document to guide our governance and that is my political North Star.</p>
<p>I generally pursue my conservatism in the Republican Party only because it is the best available vehicle for me to influence public policy. My philosophy is currently unwelcomed in the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Some folks place partisanship ahead of philosophy. They are the ones who always prefer the candidates and policies of their respective parties – Republican or Democrat. I refer to them as the cheerleaders. They are uneasy allies with those of us who may criticize our preferred party from time-to-time if we think it strays from the more important core principles.</p>
<p>It is more important than ever that we understand our own bifurcated political alliance. It helps to explain a lot.</p>
<p>The anti-Trump media props up a lot of folks who claim or claimed to be Republicans and/or conservatives who are playing on the other team this season. We have to look at them in terms of their two teams.</p>
<p>Republicans who are supporting the Democrat team are deserters. They are no different than a soldier who switches sides in the middle of battle. Oh, they may come back someday – but for the moment, they have deserted their former partisan team – and therefore should be wearing the team jersey. For this year’s season, they joined the Democrat team.</p>
<p>The question of philosophy is more complicated. Many of these individual deserters claim that they still retain their one-time conservative philosophy – even though they have joined the team that is the greatest threat to conservative governance in my lifetime – maybe since southern Democrats held authoritarian rule over Dixie.</p>
<p>MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is among the most prominent of individuals who have abandoned team-Republican – declaring himself to be an “independent.” That, in itself, is a lie. He and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, are 100 percent supporters of team-Democrat – for President, for Congress and for every office in the nation. Scarborough is NOT an independent or free agent.</p>
<p>He still claims to be a conservative. Yet, he uncompromisingly supports the Democratic Party’s radical left-wing agenda. In watching “Morning Joe” for many months, there has been no … nada … support for conservative issues. No matter how he may try to sell himself as a philosophic conservative, he is in fact, a typical New York-style left-wing Democrat. He is a false flagger – a deserter from the GOP and an apostate of conservative principles.</p>
<p>I could imagine me deserting team-Republican, but never team-conservative. I stick with Trump as the REPUBLICAN candidate for President solely because he and his administration offer the most conservative policies. Oh, there are some matters where I think Trump has failed to take the conservative position, but they are few and far between when compared to the left-wing progressive agenda of an ever more powerful, more expensive and more unresponsive federal government – which replaces constitutional rights with arbitrary revolutionary authoritarian government policies and regulations. The antithesis of conservative government.</p>
<p>A number of the Republican deserters still claim to be Republicans. That is just nonsense. They have joined Team-Democrat for this season And that even applies to guys like George Bush – a former President of the United States who said he would vote for Biden. He has deserted to team-Democrat – as have former Republican Senator Jeff Flake, former chairman of the Republican Nation Committee Michael Steele, former North Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Like most of the deserters and apostates, they are all “formers” – has-beens.</p>
<p>So, why have such traditional conservative icons as activist Bill Kristol, columnist George Will and former Republican Chairman Michael Steele decided to play for BOTH the other teams – team-Democrat and team-progressive? They claim that they are doing so BECAUSE OF their conservative principles. I beg to differ.</p>
<p>What principles, proposals and promises in the Democrat platform are even remotely conservative? Are they supporting conservative justices for the federal courts – including the all-important Supreme Court? No. They are handing it over to the radical left.</p>
<p>Are they supporting conservative economic policies of limited taxes, deregulation and private sector growth? No. Are the supporting law and order programs? No. Strong military? No. Domestic law-and-order? No. School choice? No. Etc. Etc. Etc.</p>
<p>These apostates are supporting a party that is anathematic of everything a true conservative holds dear. So, why the switch?</p>
<p>They all seem to be playing on yet another team – a third team – that they place ahead of partisanship and philosophy. It is team-establishment. That is the team that pursues politics out of a desire for power, fame and fortune. Their disloyalty to team-Republican or team-conservative gets them noticed and financial rewards. (Remember, they are virtually all has-beens.) They are – and have been – part of the Washington elite. They now get facetime on CNN and MSNBC – often as paid “contributors.”</p>
<p>Every rock-solid principled conservative I know – or know of – will be supporting President Trump as the best conservative option in this election. The combined Democrat team and progressive team are just too scary – too dangerous to America’s unique culture of personal freedom.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>