Republicans Will Keep Losing Until They Realize Power Isn’t Evil

Unless Virginia voters reject the new congressional district plan created and passed by a Democrat legislature and signed by a “moderate” Democrat governor, Republicans are set to lose four congressional seats they currently hold. The new map allows only one of Virginia’s 11 districts to be represented by a Republican, despite Republicans representing almost half of the Virginia electorate. Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana refused to redraw their congressional maps because of “principle.”

The contrast between Indiana and Virginia gets to the heart of the GOP’s biggest problem. Too many Republicans and conservatives seem to think that exercising the slightest hint of power is tantamount to putting on the One Ring of Sauron. Power, in this set-up, is not only dangerous and corrupting but unconstitutional, since the whole point of checks and balances is to prevent power from becoming concentrated. Thus, Republicans, up to now, have refused to follow Texas’ example and redraw congressional red-state maps, have refused to shelve the filibuster to get their agenda past the Democrat piranhas, and have been reluctant to pass national voter ID laws, even though it is a wildly popular issue, with even 71 percent of Democrats being for it. Actually exercising power unilaterally (and not bipartisanly) would make us no different from the Democrats. 

While Republicans worry about their virtue, Democrats have already promised to end the filibuster if they retake the Senate. They have already promised to punish their enemies (us) if they retake power. And where they have regained power, they have damned the torpedoes and gone full steam ahead.

Virginia’s new blue overlords are not just disenfranchising almost the whole Republican population — aka, 48 percent of the state’s electorate. They are also pushing bills to abolish minimum sentences for manslaughter, rape, and child pornography (HB863); to take away Second Amendment rights from anyone convicted of a misdemeanor “hate crime” (HB1015); to make it illegal to investigate allegations of Minnesota-style fraud (HB1369); and to make home ownership more burdensome (HB557 and HB881).

And it is not just Virginia. Washington state’s Democrat-dominated legislature has on its agenda: SB5974, which allows the state to decertify elected county sheriffs and appoint their replacements; SB5068, which allows non-Americans to be law enforcement officers and prosecutors; SB6081, which blocks public access to records; and HB2123, which allows foreign participation in state elections. As author Mark Steyn has said, “When Democrats win, they’re in power; when Republicans win, they’re in office.”

What the GOP has forgotten is that power is like money. It is neither good nor bad. The love of power may be a root of evil, just as the love of money is. But power, in and of itself, is not evil. In fact, power is the key ingredient to accomplishing anything in the world, no matter how small the scale.

Take something as mundane as a garden. For the garden to actually be successful, i.e., produce food, you first need to know what sort of fruits and vegetables will grow in your climate region and soil (intellectual and prudential power). You then have to prepare the garden patch, plant the seeds, weed, water, cultivate, and eventually harvest the crops (all examples of physical power and willpower — you can’t weed if you’re confined to a wheelchair, and your harvest will be zero if you can’t pull yourself away from Netflix to actually bring in the produce). The scale of what you want to accomplish will determine the amount of power you need to possess and spend to accomplish your goal. The bigger the goal, the greater the amount of power required. 

The point can be taken a step further: You cannot accomplish anything good unless you have and exercise power. Take the examples of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, still the two best examples of American presidents who faced herculean odds and stayed loyal to the Constitution.

Contrary to the image we have of him today, Washington intimately understood the dynamics of power. As historian Edmund Morgan said, “George Washington’s genius lay in his understanding of power, both military power and political power, an understanding unmatched by that of any of his contemporaries.” It’s not just that Washington practically single-handedly created the presidency (Article II of the Constitution is relatively sparse on details). It was also the situation which Washington found himself in — responsible for creating a government that would be republican but, at the same time, command the respect of the world and the states.

This was an especially tricky task after the woolly days of the Revolution and the Articles of Confederation, in which state legislatures were the real powers (the Continental Congress could request but never command). To this effect, Washington was mild when he could be — he chose the democratic title “Mr. President” over the more aristocratic options proposed — and hard as oak when needed. He declared foreign relations the sole province of the presidency (the Senate could merely advise) and forged those early foreign relations through the Neutrality Proclamation and his support of the Jay Treaty. And when the Union was threatened by the Whiskey Rebellion, Washington personally led the militias of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey against the rabble rousers after publicly proclaiming the rebellion to be war against the United States. 

According to 19th-century British historian James Bryce, “Abraham Lincoln wielded more authority than any single Englishman has done since Oliver Cromwell.” This is undoubtedly true. Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, his closing down of pro-secession newspapers in the North, his calling up of the militias (without congressional approval), and his censorship of telegrams and mail going in and out of the capital are all examples of his muscular exercise of power. In the words of James G. Randall, another historian, “No president has carried the power of presidential edict and executive order (independently of Congress) so far as [Lincoln]…”

It is practically impossible to imagine Republicans acting like this today; too many would be worried about what CNN and The Washington Post would say about them. But for all the claims of “dictatorship” by mush brains on the left and right, it was Lincoln’s use of power, especially in the 80 days between the firing on Fort Sumter and the convening of Congress on July 4, that helped save the Union. We might not exist as a united country if Lincoln had not pushed his power to the limit to save her. 

Power is not the One Ring. It is, instead, Excalibur. It exists to win good ends and to protect those ends once they are won. Especially now, at this inflection point for our country, Republicans and conservatives must make this mind shift. Because power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. As Napoleon said, “I found the crown of France lying in the gutter, and I picked it up with my sword.”

We can exercise power, or we can allow our enemies to exercise it. Choose wisely. 

Nathan Stone is a storyteller who looks at culture, politics, and religion from a different point of view on his YouTube channel Nate on the Stone, and who exercises moral imagination in his writing. A lover of books, music, and the outdoors (especially with dogs), he earned a master’s degree in American history from Liberty University in 2016. Subscribe to his channel and follow him on Twitter.