Erick Erickson's Blog, page 3

Goodbye and God Bless

“I have been blessed beyond measure, my cup overflows, the grace of our Lord sustains me, and He guides me on paths on which I’m unworthy to walk. I go where the good Lord leads. ”

I have had six months to plan for this post and as a now professional wordsmith I am struggling here on a plane home from Las Vegas to put words down that can convey and express that which I want.

Around this week nine years ago I was sitting in mud, in the rain, cradling my one year old, crying. My wife was dying. My job was ending. I was at the end of my rope. The only thing keeping me together was the thought of the little girl in my arms rubbing my face as if to tell me it would all be okay. The mud was over my shoes, the cold and wet had penetrated my shirt, soaking my skin, and my brain was shutting down. RedState, as an experiment, was coming to an end coinciding with the end of my life as I knew it. Only a year before I’d left a career as an attorney, on a partnership track, to blog about politics.

My wife had been given six months to live and on the same day RedState had been given two weeks. Doctors had told me cancer had spread into my wife’s lungs from parts unknown, then they had to rush to help an overwhelmed emergency room deal with a car wreck. I was left alone in recovery waiting for my wife to wake up from surgery to tell her she was dying and my career was ending. We were out of money at the site. Everything was turning upside down and spinning out of control and I was muddy, exhausted, and giving up. God has a way of taking you down to a low point so you see him in your life more clearly than before. He was about all I had left and all I could do was pray.

My wife and I sat in a hospital room planning my life with a child who would have no mother. Regardless of what happened, she confided that she saw my role in politics developing as a catapult for causes and candidates. I should use whatever role God gave me to catapult ideas, causes, and candidates into the arena. That is the event that has defined this past decade for me.

As it turned out, my wife had been misdiagnosed. She is still with me trying hard to keep me in line. RedState too was fine. A buyer came in and saved the day. It was a Christmas like no other. This Christmas, God willing, there will be no health scares and no turmoil, but there is something new and different and worrisome and exciting.

After eleven years at RedState and ten as its Editor-in-Chief, it is time for me to say goodbye. My formal date of departure is December 31st, but I wanted to make sure to get the goodbyes out of the way now before you all head off to Christmas vacation.

You guys too are family. The front page contributors have grown so far beyond just friends on the internet. Were it not for this site’s founders: Ben Domenech, Mike Krempasky, and Josh Trevino, along with Clayton Wagar who kept the lights on when we were young and getting traffic regularly overwhelming us, I could not now be doing what I am doing. My career is the result of the generosity and kindness of others.

I have worried about this day. In the past, during some rocky times, I really just wanted to wake up one day, say I am done, and walk away. But RedState has been my second wife and third child for some time. I care for the site, its writers, and its readers. I did not want to depart without working to leave it in good hands, and I am. When I told our parent company in June that I wanted to leave, they asked me to stay till the end of the year and together we have worked to make sure that on January 1st, RedState will be as it was December 31st.

Leon Wolf has come in as Managing Editor and has done wonders in just the few months that he’s been here. He’s a dear friend and brother in this site. I have been so blessed by his friendship and encouragement. His arrival on the payroll has taken from me the stress of the “what if” and allowed me to ponder the “what now.”

Over the last ten years, I have recommended a number of candidates and organizations for you guys to support. I have intentionally avoided organizations that are built up around single people. So often in the last eleven years here I have seen conservatives support causes led by men who, when they die, all that they built collapses too. There are no indispensable people and we should not support organizations whose leaders think otherwise. I am not indispensable here either. While the writings and views and positions may change over time, RedState can and should go on without me.

When I think about the time I have had here and what this site has accomplished, I continue to be amazed.

In 2009, when I organized the first RedState Gathering, we had a former congressman from Pennsylvania named Pat Toomey show up. He is now a Senator. We had a relatively unknown state legislator from South Carolina show up. Nikki Haley is now Governor of South Carolina. We had a former Florida House Speaker show up. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is now running for President. We had a lawyer from Texas show up. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now running for President.

2009 was also the year I realized we really had something going here. Having organized the RedState Gathering, I had no freaking clue what I was doing. Enter Mr. Caleb Howe, professional. Let me say “I organized” is used loosely because really Caleb organized everything. And when I say Caleb “organized” everything, he really just browbeat people into giving him what he wanted. I was amazed. He took an idea I had and turned it into something glorious. His designs and plans and processes are reflected every time we get another Gathering together, including the upcoming one in Denver.

In 2010, Herman Cain spoke at our Gathering and suggested he might consider a Presidential run. in 2011, I took his slot in radio and Rick Perry declared his Presidential campaign at the RedState Gathering. I went from CNN to Fox and all the while this site continued fighting for conservative causes and getting conservatives elected.

I have tried to always be a compass pointing north toward conservatism and that has often put this site at odds with Republicans. In the Bush era, his administration had folks coming to RedState to debate our position on immigration and TARP. We helped scuttle Harriet Miers’s nomination and have proudly helped defeat incumbents who supported TARP.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), and Pat Toomey are just a few of the candidates around the country for whom we helped raise money and awareness. So many of the men and women we have helped have become true friends, not just friends in politics. They are sources of strength and prayer and advice. More than one has been known to text me randomly things like “praying for you” or “turn off your damn phone and go play with the kids.”

Along the way, I have learned that people with whom I have disagreements may not be disagreeable people. Those on the other side are not necessarily enemies, but people of different life experiences and world views and ideas with whom we argue, but with whom we should not be willing to write out of our lives just because of partisan disagreement. I’ve learned a warm, freshly baked piece of bread or pot of gumbo can bring people of profound disagreement together as friends. I’ve learned I still have much to learn and often fall short and sometimes screw up. I’ve learned I should always strive to do better and be better. I have learned I should be willing to make any argument about which I believe, but as best I can do it respectfully and hopefully in ways that might draw a smile. That last one is a real work in progress.

I’ve learned that being kind is not an obligation, but a necessity of life. I’ve learned that there are far too many who show no grace and people on the internet are in a race to always remind you of your sins. I’ve learned that social media can draw out the worst in all of us, myself definitely included, anonymity breeds contemptibility, and comment sections should always be ignored. I’ve learned the Oxford comma is a defining characteristic of a civilized society, that I suck at proofreading, and sometimes there is no reward in doing the right thing, but you should always still do it as a reward in itself because tomorrow you will see yourself in the mirror even if no one else does.

I’ve learned that friends come in unexpected places, at unexpected times, and there are many more people worth getting to know who I thought I’d never want to know and now can’t live without them in my life.

Now it is time for me to move on to other things. William Perkins, the great Puritan theologian in the 16th Century, called theology “the science of living blessedly forever.” As I have become a seminarian I find the struggles of faith and politics more and more clash and sometimes seem incompatible. It is something I want to explore. So too I see conservatism now as less red vs. blue and more and more a merry band of resurgent conservatives against a rising tide of Washington interests in both parties who think government is a solution and friends should be rewarded. I want to go explore that. I want to focus on radio, from which I now draw most of my income, and in which my career and ratings continue to grow. I have a book coming out in February on the clash of secularism and faith in America (PRE-ORDER NOW). And honestly I just have a real desire now to own my own endeavor. I want to control all the pixels.

Though I’m the Editor-in-Chief of RedState, it has not really been my site for years. I want something a little more a reflection of me as I am now — a radio show host and television commentator on politics, with a side of cooking and gospel. I still hope Roger Ailes will give me a cooking show on Fox. It’d be awesome.

I started this year with the Atlantic hailing me as the most powerful conservative in America. I leave the year leaving the site that got me to that point. You guys are friends and family and I love you and will miss you. I’ll stop by occasionally and see you all at next year’s Gathering, but for now I look forward to new adventures. I’ll be filling in for Rush Limbaugh on December 30th and leave here the next day with fond memories and deep appreciation for you all. I’ll be transitioning my present radio site on January 4, 2016, to a permanent home merging both my online and on-air presence.

I am mindful each day of how unique my career has been, going from being a lawyer to a blogger to a television commentator to a radio show host to a Rush Limbaugh guest host and still a husband, father, son, and now a seminary student. I have been blessed beyond measure, my cup overflows, the grace of our Lord sustains me, and He guides me on paths on which I’m unworthy to walk. I go where the good Lord leads. My career is a testament to the plans made about which we never fully see or know. It is a reminder of the unseen and permanent realm to which we journey through the seen and temporary. It is a call to remain a happy warrior and not give into the fear and anger that sometimes is so much easier to fall back on.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12) and “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

God bless you all, have a Merry Christmas, and goodbye.

The post Goodbye and God Bless appeared first on RedState.

The Fundamental Flaw at the Heart of Ted Cruz’s and Marco Rubio’s Campaigns

“Arguing about how pure a conservative either Cruz or Rubio is, is like arguing over FL and IF diamond clarity.”

When Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ran for the Senate, I backed him in 2009. He was around three percent in the polls. I declared his candidacy a hill to die on. I’d do it all over again. I adore the guy.

Jim DeMint and the Senate Conservatives Fund followed. Soon other conservatives came on board. Republican leaders in Washington sent staff to prop up Charlie Crist. I encouraged a donor boycott of the NRSC. Crist became an independent. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) won.

Along the way, Rubio committed very directly to me and to others that he was opposed to amnesty and would not get on board a comprehensive immigration plan like that which conservatives had rallied to defeat in the Bush Administration.

But then Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) went to Washington. As he staffed up he surrounded himself with people who had a vested interest in immigration reform. Pretty soon Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was crossing the aisle to work with Chuck Schumer to do that which he had told so many of us he would not do. To his credit, he worked hard to bring along conservatives. But I bet now he regrets ever crossing the aisle.

On Tuesday night, both Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tied the immigration plan around Rubio’s neck like a millstone. It left a mark.

While Rubio was working with the Democrats to orchestrate an immigration plan, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was working to scuttle it. But contrary to what Cruz said Tuesday night, he too did favor a pathway for legalization of some illegal immigrants, though not necessarily citizenship. Cruz is arguing now about poison pills and procedural tricks, but it was not so back then.

Rubio says he tried to cut a deal and walked away when it went south and he learned his lesson. Cruz says he never did what he actually did and if he did do it, it was a legislative maneuver decided to do something not expressed at the time.

Both Rubio and Cruz have a fundamental flaw at the hearts of their campaigns. They are ambitious, young politicians. They have maneuvered and jockeyed for positions in ways to build coalitions and occasionally those maneuvers come back to haunt them by those who do not like them.

The pounding on Cruz from the Establishment is something they have waited to do with gusto. The pounding on Rubio from the conservative base is something they have waited to do with gusto. Both sides have wanted a pound of flesh from the other and now is their chance. It is politics.

The deeper reality is this.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)‘s political flaw is that he has sometimes surrounded himself with people who had agendas greater than Rubio’s own. In office, that manifested itself with advisors who saw Rubio, the tea party candidate, as the guy who could advance their immigration agenda. Rubio was badly served.

It is coming back to bite him in the ass again with advisors who are unwilling to relinquish the war plans of 2003-era George Bush. They feel they lost their power because of a poor communicator in Bush and Rubio can vindicate them. So Libya and Syria were just causes as will every other play in the Middle East until they are proven right.

Their attacks on Cruz as an isolationist are hyperbolic and silly and none of them see that the Republican base, like with immigration, is not ready to go back in guns blazing to every Middle Eastern territory in the name of democracy for all. ISIS is one thing. Libyan and Syrian intervention are something else entirely. I am intentionally not using the word “neocon” here because it is too often used as a pejorative, but Rubio is certainly surrounded by the most aggressive interventionists on the right not named Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and is now advocating their policies in the same way he advocated immigration.

I think it is to his detriment.

With Cruz, I think it is the exact opposite. Rubio listens to too many people and Cruz listens to too few. He comes across as too clever by half, less likable and relatable than Rubio, and often times so polished as to seem slick. His constant need to talk over the moderators on Tuesday night rubbed even a lot of his supporters the wrong way. His sleight of hand on his own immigration position mentioned above seemed a career politician worthy deception. It caught up to him the very next day in a very awkward interview with Brett Baier on Fox News that Rubio supporters blasted out everywhere.

Cruz is surrounded by loyal foot soldiers out to stick it to the man, where the man is the Republican Establishment. Just as the Rubio team can get caught in an echo chamber, so too can the Cruz campaign. If the Cruz campaign did not see that unforced error coming Tuesday night — particularly when the vast majority of the right-of-center and centrist GOP opinion leaders and television personalities are out to get him — they need some new voices or reconsiderations.

But ultimately, Cruz’s stunt on Tuesday night came across as the guy who knows he is the smartest guy on stage and that often leaves a bad impression at a time Cruz needs to make every good impression possible.

In neither case is it fatal. As Chris Christie rises, Cruz stands a better and better chance of besting Rubio. But there are plenty of people like me who backed Rubio in 2010 who would do it all over again, even knowing what we know now. Cruz as a 100% Heritage Action rating and Rubio has a 93% Heritage Action rating. Arguing about how pure a conservative either Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is, is like arguing over FL and IF diamond clarity.

Next week is Christmas. No one is going to remember this by next Saturday. The heart of the problem for both men is that they are young, ambitious politicians saying and doing the things they need to do to get elected. What Rubio’s supporters see as opportunistic of Cruz, they see as noble coalition building for Rubio and vice versa. What Cruz supporters see as pandering by Rubio, they see as truth telling by Cruz.

It’s politics. It is the quest for the Presidency. I don’t expect either man to be a saint. They are trying to win by looking as little like politicians as possibly while being politicians. Neither side will show the other grace for the same tactics used because there is an election coming up.

We’ll all get through this together. It’s just Sturm und Drang at least till March.

The post The Fundamental Flaw at the Heart of Ted Cruz’s and Marco Rubio’s Campaigns appeared first on RedState.

No, Wheaton College Did Not Put Larycia Hawkins On Leave For Expressing Solidarity With Muslims

Christian conservatives should not be shy about standing up for Wheaton College right now. It is getting attacked after putting Professor Larycia Hawkins on leave. The public relations campaign waged on Larycia Hawkins’ behalf would have you believe she was put on leave for pledging solidarity with muslims. That is simply not true.

Professor Hawkins put on a veil, took a picture, and announced on Facebook that she would wear it and encourage others to in order to show her support for peaceful muslims.

Had she stopped there, nothing would have been wrong other than her inflated sense of purpose in doing something silly. But she went beyond that.

Her statement on Facebook included this:

I love my Muslim neighbor because s/he deserves love by virtue of her/his human dignity,” she wrote in the Dec. 10 post, alongside photos of herself wearing the veil. “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.

Wheaton is an evagelical Christian college and expects its faculty to adhere to its faith standards, including Biblical standards. Muslims are not “people of the book” in common understanding among evangelicals, though they do descend from Abraham. They do not worship the same God. According to Islam, Allah neither begets nor is begotten — a line explicitly rejecting the trinity.

Professor Hawkins and her supporters may wish to distract or may not even care, but Wheaton sets its hiring standards and requires fidelity to the Bible. Professor Hawkins’ statement suggests a theological diversion not in keeping with Wheaton’s standards.

Again, she was not put on leave for showing solidarity with muslims. She was put on leave for bad theology at a college that expects its faculty to have good theology.

The post No, Wheaton College Did Not Put Larycia Hawkins On Leave For Expressing Solidarity With Muslims appeared first on RedState.

Africa Must Remain Poor With No Power or the World Will Boil Over

On June 29, 2013, President Obama participated in the “Young African Leaders Initiative Town Hall” in Johannesburg, South Africa. Toward the very end of his remarks, he said something very telling about his world view: We’re going to all have to work together to find ways in which collectively, we reduce carbon but we make sure that there’s some differentiation so that countries that are | Read More »

The Real World and the Chart

Paul Krugman wishes to disprove something I wrote the other day. In this post I wrote: The sage of creased pants bipartisanship, David Brooks, reports on Jesus’s letter to the Corinthians. Thomas Friedman, the guru of globalism reduced to ridiculous phrases with no meaning yells at train stewards for not clearing his plate fast enough. And the Washington to New York crowd laps them all | Read More »

Rick Perry Praises Wendy Davis. Political Left Gets Outraged

Rick Perry had kind things to say about Wendy Davis at the National Right to Life meeting going on in Dallas. In his speech he noted: In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances, the daughter of a single mother and a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve | Read More »

The Latest George Soros Group: The Evangelical Immigration Table

A number of evangelical leaders in America joined on to the Evangelical Immigration Table early. They felt a calling and need to help. But more and more of them are backing away now that they know it is just another left-wing George Soros funded group designed to appear both moderate in its intentions and ecumenical in its outreach. It is not. In fact, as Marjorie | Read More »

Yes, You Will Be Made to Care

Those of you coming in on this post, I apologize for sending the Morning Briefing just after midnight, but due to events outside my control today I needed to go on and do it and send it out instead of getting up at 4am. – Erick ———– You will be made to care about gay marriage. You may think it does not affect you or | Read More »

Call Them Back, @GovernorPerry [update]

UPDATE: Governor Perry has called them back effective July 1st. ————– When last the Republicans filibustered anywhere, it was Rand Paul who led Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, and others to filibuster over the use of drones against Americans in the United States. The Democrats chose to filibuster legislation that would save the lives of American citizens. It is telling. Last night | Read More »

Why America Hates Washington

I sat in the first class section of the Acela Express once from New York to Washington. I was on a book tour and the publisher was whisking me from New York to DC for events. Thomas Freidman sat diagonally from me. His single seat backed up to where the First Class Stewards worked. As the train pulled into DC, the overworked steward hadn’t taken | Read More »