Theme for 50B

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true.

Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B"

I've always been particularly fond of this poem, even though my experience growing up in a prosperous town in Wisconsin is quite different from the experience of the protagonist of the Hughes poem, a young black man from Winston-Salem growing up with Jim Crow. One of the reasons that I blog is the idea that it's important to go home and write a page. It's not always easy and there are times, as has been the case this week, where it's easier to post pictures of Eraserhead or go back to the well for music posts repeatedly. Sometimes iTunes can tell stories that you aren't able to muster yourself.

It's been especially hard to write about politics. It's not as if there's any lack of material -- with the Democrats in power, there are any number of outrages and inanites available for even the laziest conservative to skewer. There's not a lot of joy in it, however. The blogosphere is so full of would-be Zolas screeching "J'accuse" that it starts to feel like the aviary at the Milwaukee Zoo, which I always remembered as a place filled with macaws at full throat, a ghastly wall of noise that would leave my ears ringing for days afterward.

We conservatives are doing a lot of screeching these days, but a lot of it is pretty damned incoherent. One of the lies I tell myself is that somehow conservatives, by their nature, are less emotional and more reasoned than our liberal friends. The reason it's ultimately a lie is pretty simple -- a lot of conservatives these days are operating out of emotion.

Many of the emotions are understandable and heartfelt. I was at a meet and greet for the 50B BPOU last night and when you listened to the people who were in the room, the anger and frustration were palpable. There was anger toward the Obama administration, anger toward the Republican Party, anger toward the news media and genuine fear that the people in power are taking the country places that we will regret. I feel all those things, too. I've been convinced for a long time that Barack Obama is going to be a disaster and nothing he's done so far has dissuaded me of that view. It drives me nuts that so many Republican Party operatives are more interested in self-promotion than in trying to build and sustain a principled political movement with a coherent governing philosophy. It all makes perfect sense.

But emotion cannot win the fight that conservatives now face. It's going to take serious, principled stands on the issues and a willingness to take the time to explain why conservative principles are better. It's well-nigh impossible to explain Edmund Burke with a Twitter feed, especially since so many Republicans have lately set principle aside for reasons of expedience. But we have to find a way to make our case. And that means we need to unite.

It's going to take time and effort. We need to start at the bottom and build. The 50B BPOU meets at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning at Christ the King, on 7th Street in New Brighton. The BPOU is where things will begin. Most conservatives understand that the Republican Party is at best an imperfect vessel, but it's the vessel we have. We can only build for the future if we make the foundation for our efforts strong enough.

I write this page because it comes out of me. That is my Theme for 50B. See you tomorrow morning.

Cross-posted at True North