Still Not Getting It
By now, people should be beyond surprise when a tea-party candidate upsets an establishment Democrat or Republican – either in a primary or regular election. After all, they’ve had a year to get used to it.
Nevertheless, the tidal wave of tea-party-candidate victories continues to surprise – and upset – many media pundits and, even more so, establishment politicians. Every possible attempt has been made to marginalize the tea-party people as extremists, but I think it’s safe to say that that’s a battle that was over a long time ago – and the losers were the hate-mongering left and disbelievers on the establishment right.
But now we’ve crossed into a danger zone. Trent Lott says that “As soon as (newly elected tea-party people) get here, we need to co-opt them.” And, once again displaying the RINO willingness to compromise principles, House Republican Leader John Boehner said, on Face the Nation, that he would vote for a tax cuts for people making under $250,000 a year (leaving out those with incomes higher than $250,000) if that’s his “only option.”
Finally, the shocker: The ever-astute Karl Rove, who has been a strong tea-party supporter, allowed a bit of establishment bias to surface when he lambasted the tea party’s newest star, Christine O’Donnell. I have no doubts that Rove sincerely believes that establishment candidate Mike Castle, a nine-term Congressman, had a much better chance of winning Joe Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware than O’Donnell.
But that misses the point. In fact, in an unintended way, the great non-entity David Gergen – of CNN non-fame – made the best case against Castle by lamenting, “O’Donnell’s opponent knew how to work with Democrats.” How’s that for an endorsement?
The question is, what do establishment Republicans think they would have gained by Castle’s election to the Senate? The notion that the Republican’s main goal should be to get majorities in both the House and Senate is badly flawed. Having a majority doesn’t mean anything if a significant number of that majority repeatedly backs socialist bills offered up by Democrats. They may just as well be Democrats.
So long as Republicans in the Senate include Constitutionally subversive progressives like John McCain, Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and Olympia Snowe – to name but a handful of examples – having a “majority” is meaningless.
What a large number of Republicans cannot seem to come to grips with is that tea-party people are simply everyday Americans. In fact, most tea-party people have never gone to a tea-party rally, but feel just as strongly about what is happening to America as those who are actively involved in the movement.
If there is any hope for the Republican Party to survive, the word compromise must be eradicated from the minds of philosophically confused “conservatives” in their ranks. You cannot compromise between right and wrong. You cannot compromise between freedom and slavery. You cannot comprise between stealing and respecting the property of others. You cannot compromise between constitutional and unconstitutional.
Shamefully, a number of establishment Republicans have borrowed the favorite strategy of the left: Isolate and disparage your opponent. It’s like the last gasp of a dying dinosaur. Christine O’Donnell has been broke most of her life. Christine O’Donnell had a tax lien filed against her. And Christine O’Donnell lost her home through foreclosure as a result of that tax lien.
Calling all RINOS: Tea-party voters do not view these as negatives. Christine O’Donnell is us! She represents everything tea-party people are mad about. Tax liens make them angry at Washington, not at the person who is on the receiving end of the tax lien. Foreclosures make them mad at Washington, which is the real source of most people’s financial problems, not at the person whose house has been foreclosed.
Tea-party voters are savvy enough to realize that none of Christine O’Donnell’s personal misfortunes would stop her from voting no to every unconstitutional spending bill served up by Congressional progressives. That is what they are looking for in a candidate.
Say what you will about Sarah Palin, she gets it. So does Michelle Bachmann, Paul Ryan, Jim DeMint, Ron Paul, Tom Price, and a bunch of other tea-party types in the House and Senate. None of them are perfect when it comes to voting – it’s an ugly, rough-and-tumble contact sport up there on Capitol Hill – but they’re at least making a sincere effort to dramatically reduce government spending and government power. If all Republicans in the House and Senate were in line with them, the future of both our economy and our freedom would look much different than it does today.
Half or more of the American people don’t want candidates with experience. They don’t want candidates with blue-ribbon credentials. They don’t want candidates with Kennedy-like pedigrees. They want everyday folks to go to Washington and repeal Healthcare Hell and every other piece of legislation that is unconstitutional. And, yes, they want all entitlement programs phased out.
They also are turned off by the “tactfulness” Republicans employ when they talk about progressives, socialists, and communists in our government, whether they be in Congress, the Judiciary, or the White House. They want in-your-face bluntness, honesty, and courage. They know this is the last train out for America and Western civilization, and they want the go-along-to-get-along professional politician to be given the boot.
Anyone who still doesn’t get all this is going to be caught off guard by the civil war that is coming after the November 2 elections. I truly believe that only one side can survive this war, and whether the U.S. goes into a decades-long New Dark Ages of tyranny or once again becomes the freest, strongest, most respected country in the world will be dependent upon which side wins.
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Ringer for Congress – and then…
The challenge I have with some of the positions expressed by many who identify themselves as “Tea Party” advocates is the mixing of constitutional, libertarian, Jeffersonian values with their religious values. As an agnostic libertarian, I am thrilled to hear the emphasis on the economic role (or non-role) of government, but PLEASE check your religious values at the door! Not everyone who is a thoughtful, honorable Jeffersonian constitutionalist is a Christian, or even religious believer. And not everyone who is a Christian is honorable and/or libertarian. I fully respect peoples’ rights to believe whatever they want, but please don’t try to use the government to enforce YOUR ideas of family (translate: religious) values, such as homosexuality, drug use, pre-marital sex, etc. It’s fine to advocate for your values, but as soon as you attempt to use government to enforce your values, you are no better than the “progressive” you are trying to defeat.
The grand idea of our founders is to have an open, free society, where all people can think and behave freely, as long as it does not harm others. The Tea Party should be careful to be completely neutral with respect to religion, thereby including all those who might be of different religious persuasions or views.
100% right on. We better make sure the right side wins in November.
Good article Robert. I would probably have to disagree with you on one point: you mentioned that the government was responsible for most of the financial problems individuals are experiencing, particularly with regards to the real estate market and lending. I blame alot of people who feel they need the biggest house and have it stuffed full of “stuff” as george carlin once said. Personal fiscal prudence, budgetary awareness, and self control are lacking in alot of people. I say most of those people who overcommitted deserve to fall on their faces. maybe they will wise up. Or maybe not.
I about 99% agree with everything you said. That said, I should point out that McCain is not an ordinary progressive. He’s really a maverick as he calls himself. He has boldly held the line on a lot of things that would have done serious harm to our country. He has made a couple of huge mistakes, and I think he learned from them. Most notably, he is the ONLY congresscritter who does not take earmarks, and opposes them vigorously and with integrity. Not even Ron Paul can say that. Stopping the earmarks is a huge part of what we need to do. Sure, he tries to reach across the aisle, but there are certain principles he will not compromise. McCain is far from perfect, but he is also not a progressive. So it isn’t accurate to put him in that list.
Hi Robert,
What I’m tired of as an American citizen and active voter for all of my adult life are Republicans voting for the Republican party and Democrats voting for the Democrat party. There is no one representing their constituents in our present duopoly. We want people in office who have lived common everyday lives, with all that goes with being an average working American, and who understand the common person’s interests and concerns.
Instead we’re offered up every single recent election cycle wealthy ivory tower blue bloods, many who have never had a REAL honest job for their entire lives and that includes those who prior to their running for political office were lawyers.
All the dirty smears that came out about Christine O’Donnell right after her victory brought back memories of what Ross Perot claimed the Republican party tried to blackmail him during his run for the Presidency. Seeing what I’ve seen in politics, I now see the two major U.S. political parties as obsolete and bad for the future of America and the American people. They’ve become nothing more than legitimized crime families protecting what they believe to be “their” turf. It’s our country and turf and come November, American citizens are beginning the campaign to take control of our government back one seat at a time and we’ll be on our guard until then for the expected “dirty tricks” from the two entrenched crime families attempting to keep all the “outsiders” out.
After Nov 2, it’s the establishment politicians who will have to be “normalized”.
This article is crap. Yes, let’s applaud Christine O’Donnell because she could not hold a job and illegally used campaign contributions to pay her personal expenses. Yes, let’s teach our children that when they do something wrong — even illegal — to blame others, particularly the government. And, yes, let’s teach our children to be lazy fools, not finish college, lie about it, take other people’s money falsely, and the proudly run for public office on a platform of Christian values (what a joke), and conservative principles (which ones exactly.)
Since when is the truth “smears.” Christine O’Donnell pursued illegal activities — using public campaign funds for personal expenses. And, now the right and tea partiers are holding her up as some role model. Yes, let her talk to our children and explain how illegal activity can help you become a candidate for the US Senate.
You could be right, but it’s still nice to know that she’ll vote to repeal healthcare and against the rest of the BHO agenda.
RJR