Takeover
Authors: Richard A. Viguerie
TAKEOVER
**************************************************************************************
THE 100-YEAR WAR
FOR THE
SOUL
OF THE
GOP
AND
HOW CONSERVATIVES CAN FINALLY WIN IT
FORWARD BY
JENNY BETH MARTIN
RICHARD A. VIGUERIE
TAKE OVER
Copyright © 2014 by Richard A. Viguerie
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means—
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published by WND Books®, Washington, D.C. WND Books is a registered trademark of
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All photographs in the insert are courtesy of the author. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in
appendix 7
, Rogue’s Gallery, are in the public domain and courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The photograph of Reince Priebus on
page 311
© AP Photo/Susan Walsh and used with permission.
The photograph of Chris Christie on
page 312
© AP Photo/Julio Cortez and used with permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Viguerie, Richard A.
Takeover: the 100-year war for the soul of the GOP and how conservatives can finally win it
by Richard A. Viguerie. -- First edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-936488-54-4 (hardcover)
1. Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )--History. I. Title.
JK2356.V47 2014
324.2734--dc23
2013051143
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First Edition
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-936488-54-4 eBook ISBN: 978-1-936488-64-3
Printed in the United States of America
14 15 16 17 18 19 BVG 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated with great appreciation to the now deceased giants of the conservative movement, most of whom were friends of mine, who did not serve in public office, but upon whose mighty shoulders the conservative movement stands today.
Among those who have passed on, but with whom God blessed us for this great work, are William F. Buckley, Jr., L. Brent Bozell, Jr., Joe Coors, Terry Dolan, Russell Kirk, Marvin Liebman, Clarence Manion, E. Victor “Vic” Milione, Frank Meyer, Howard Phillips, Henry Regnery, William Rusher, Paul Weyrich, and Cliff White.
The conservative movement has been fortunate to have had elected officials such as Barry Goldwater, Jesse Helms, John Ashbrook, and most of all, Ronald Reagan, who relied heavily upon the individuals mentioned above to lead and advance the conservative cause.
FOREWORD
BY JENNY BETH MARTIN
1
TEDDY ROOSEVELT THROUGH BARRY GOLDWATER
2
RICHARD NIXON AND THE RISE OF RONALD REAGAN
3
THE NEW RIGHT AND REAGAN’S 1980 VICTORY
4
THWARTING THE REAGAN REVOLUTION
5
THE 1988 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN: THE ESTABLISHMENT STRIKES BACK
7
GEORGE H. W. BUSH ABANDONS REAGAN’S PRINCIPLES AND TRASHES THE REPUBLICAN BRAND
8
THE NEW MEDIA AND THE RISE OF THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA CONGRESS
9
BIG GOVERNMENT REPUBLICANS BACK IN CONTROL
10
CONSERVATIVES OPEN THE DOOR TO ANOTHER BUSH
11
THE SELLING OF GOVERNOR GEORGE W. BUSH AS A “CONSERVATIVE”
12
CONSERVATIVES BETRAYED: THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH
13
THE 2006 ELECTION: AMERICA REJECTS BIG GOVERNMENT REPUBLICANISM
14
2007 AND 2008: GEORGE W. BUSH’S CRAVEN RETREAT AND SURRENDER
15
MCCAIN WASTES CONSERVATIVE ENTHUSIASM FOR PALIN, OBAMA WINS
16
THE TEA PARTY BECOMES THE OPPOSITION TO OBAMA
17
ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS THROW AWAY THE 2010 REALIGNMENT
18
THE PARTY OF STUPID PUTS THE MEDIA IN CHARGE OF THEIR DEBATES
19
CONSULTANTS MAKE MILLIONS WRECKING THE GOP
20
KARL ROVE AND REINCE PRIEBUS GIVE AWAY KEY ELECTIONS IN 2012 AND 2013
22
THE LIBERTY PRIZE: PRACTICAL IDEAS TO TAKE OVER THE GOP
23
VIGUERIE’S PLAN FOR CONSERVATIVES TO TAKE OVER THE GOP AND GOVERN AMERICA BY 2017
APPENDIX 1: THE SHARON STATEMENT
APPENDIX 2: A TIME FOR CHOOSING
APPENDIX 3: MORTON BLACKWELL’S LAWS OF THE PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS
APPENDIX 4: THE REPUBLICAN “CONTRACT WITH AMERICA” (1994)
APPENDIX 5: A CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR PRISON REFORM
APPENDIX 6: RICHARD VIGUERIE’S CANDIDATE ANALYSIS
T
here is a bitter political civil war taking place that will determine whether America remains a constitutional republic. It is a timeless struggle between those who have power and those who desire to be free. The modern version of this struggle is not between Democrats and Republicans, but within the Republican Party itself.
This civil war began over one hundred years ago and not with the rise of the Tea Party movement in 2009.
It is a civil war between limited-government, constitutional conservatives and the progressive, establishment wing of the GOP. And make no mistake: the establishment wing of the Republican Party is progressive, and has been ever since conservatives stymied Teddy Roosevelt’s attempt to reclaim the Republican presidential nomination in 1912 and make progressivism the governing philosophy of the Republican Party.
In the years since 1912, this civil war has been playing out, and for the majority of that time, from the Taft-Eisenhower campaign of 1952 to the Tea Party’s battles to nominate and elect limited-government constitutional conservatives in 2010 and 2012, Richard Viguerie has been in the thick of the battle.
Richard’s objective in writing this book is to provide a plan for conservatives to win this civil war based on the lessons he has learned—from both success and failure—in over fifty years of being active in the conservative movement at the national level.
It is a plan for constitutional conservatives to take over the GOP so that we may restore the liberty and opportunity that the Founders intended and protect that great document, the United States Constitution.
The millions of Americans who are drawn to the Tea Party movement understand that progressives in both the Democratic and Republican Parties have usurped power and overrun the Constitution. The Obama administration is the most extreme example of progressive rule, but the road to where we are today was built with the willing participation of establishment Republicans.
James Madison foresaw the likelihood of this civil war, although not within a political party, in Federalist No. 44, where he wrote, “In the last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people who can, by the election of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.”
Madison’s “remedy” must play out within the Republican Party since the Democratic Party has been completely taken over by progressives whose policies cannot succeed without ignoring and violating the Constitution.
In
TAKEOVER
Richard shows us that the ballot box of the Republican primaries is where we must begin to fulfill Madison’s remedy of electing “more faithful representatives.”
Time is running out, and if we fail in this task, our children, grandchildren—our posterity—will never know the America for which millions have sacrificed their labor, capital, lives, and limbs. Unless the Republican Party fulfills its promise and becomes the constitutional alternative to the progressives, I fear the “American experiment” is over.
The rise of the Tea Party citizenry and the election of young, principled constitutionalists to the Congress and in state legislatures
is a sign that this war is about to turn, and in
TAKEOVER
Richard Viguerie gives us a road map to make it turn in our favor.
Where we are now is the culmination of decades of struggle, which is why the younger people in our movement especially must know what has worked and what has failed up until now.
It is to the younger generation, who has the most “skin in the game,” that
TAKEOVER
is addressed. Those who join us in this civil war are fulfilling an obligation to our children, grandchildren, and generations yet to be born that I dare say is no less consequential than that of the Founders.
The goal of Richard Viguerie’s
TAKEOVER
is for limited-government constitutional conservatives to take over the Republican Party and govern America in 2017. I urge you to read the book, follow the plan, and get in the fight today.
—Jenny Beth Martin
President and Cofounder of Tea Party Patriots
A
ll elections are, in some sense, about the future. Politicians may base campaigns on the past by running on their record, but voters must still decide: if they like the candidate’s record, whether he can be trusted to maintain that record in the future—or if they don’t like his record—if he can be expected to continue voting against their interests and should be thrown out.
Even more important than a candidate’s record may be the candidate’s
vision
of the future, and how he or she frames it.
Think of Winston Churchill. His record was stellar; however, having just saved Great Britain from the Nazis and helped lead the Allies to victory in the Second World War, on July 5, 1945, he lost the election to lead the country in peacetime that he had just saved in wartime. British voters were looking for a different vision of the future than the one Churchill offered.
History doesn’t start or stop on Election Day, and elections don’t happen in a historical vacuum. What has happened in the past informs and molds our vision of the future.
The purpose of this book is to provide limited-government constitutional conservatives and other liberty-loving voters with a
vision of the future of the Republican Party as the political home of limited-government constitutional conservatives, and a plan to achieve that goal.
An equally important part of this plan is an understanding of the historical perspective on how the GOP was hijacked by an elite progressive minority who, over the past one hundred years, have taken the Republican Party far afield from its conservative platform and the interests and values of its grassroots conservative base.
Let’s turn back the clock to 1952 when, as a nineteen-year-old kid too young to vote (you had to be twenty-one at that time), I sat in a polling place in Houston, Texas, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., trying to help “Mr. Conservative,” Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, win the Republican nomination for president.