Archive for March, 2010
A troubling dynamic is emerging within the conservative ranks. Some of the loudest voices are pointing a finger of blame at the Republican Party as part of the problem. The rhetoric includes the labeling of moderate elected Republicans as “progressives”, calling the party’s actions “Democrat light” and condemning Republicans for big government solutions. This strikes me as curious. Who and what exactly is this “Republican Party” and who is to blame for them becoming part of the problem? In my mind the answer is clear, as we are in fact the Republican Party we have no one but ourselves to blame for the party not living up to its own/our principles.
The truth is that many of us who are now alarmed and outraged by the Progressives’ power grabs were previously too pre-occupied with our own lives and responsibilities to care about “Washington nonsense”. We are after all conservatives; we don’t look to Washington or the government for answers, assistance, or solutions. It is only natural that our attention was focused elsewhere when the Left was building their base and coalitions to launch their attack on liberty. The election of Obama and his ensuing radical agenda is the Conservative Pearl Harbor. We have been rudely wakened from our political slumber; our backs are against the wall and we are now reacting.
The question before us now is how best to defeat the Left’s energized and aggressive assault on the American way of life. Part of this ongoing discussion is the blame game, how did this happen and who is at fault? While it is true that the Republican Party has been part of the problem and is guilty of many sins it is also true that our own decision to not involve ourselves effectively and demand better was a factor. Had we been as energized and organized as we are now our elected Republican officials wouldn’t have dared to bring home the giant cardboard checks, they wouldn’t have voted for debt expansions and created new entitlements. The truth is they did this and more because the voices encouraging this behavior were louder than our own.
That was then, this is now. Clearly we have gotten their attention, now we must work to maintain it. By continuing to build Conservative organizations and mobilize Conservative voters we can refocus their attention to our conservative goals. This is the surest way forward to victory over the agenda of the Left.
Understanding our past errors is important but I caution us to question those who continue to point fingers, both their tactics and their motives. What is it they are really trying to accomplish?
Scott Armstrong
Team Obama’s move to pass health care in the face of massive public opposition has taken on the appearance of mass hysteria. Otherwise sensible Democrats seem to share the delusion that the American public really wants something when the polls, and their own experiences, in fact tell them they don’t. The urgency and fixation they have demonstrated on this single issue borders on obsession and people have a right to question the excited and unstable mental state of America’s largest political party. Equally worrisome and another indicator of possible psychosis are the other unpopular plans the Democrats have waiting in the wings. Cap and Trade and Amnesty for Illegals are the last things the voters want congress to consider even in the good times but to bring it up in the second year of a devastating economic downturn is a clear demonstration of bizarre behavior.
Meanwhile, the Republicans, who have been cast into the minority for behavior that pales in comparison, are accused by the Democrats and most of the media of being the “party of no.” Yet, why should the GOP be expected to join in the insanity that is presently gripping Washington? They aren’t nuts.
Scott Armstrong
While attempts are under way to pull the nation irrevocably to the far left some of those who oppose big government are ignoring the culprits and instead pointing fingers at the feckless. At the very moment when our liberties are on the line and the future of the nation is at stake some conservatives purists are ignoring the real threat and are instead focused on purging the Republican Party of its less than stellar elected officials. For the life of me I can’t understand their logic. What do they hope to achieve by dividing the opposition to the energized and emboldened progressives that are now in complete control of the government? Do they not understand that while the bloodletting occurs on the right the left will busy itself with long-anticipated plans to create entitlements, build corrupt institutions, and ensconce revolutionaries into every facet of government? Reasonable people might wonder what are these purists are thinking; how could they be so shortsighted to think that now is the hour to clean the Republican Party’s house or, worse, start a third party? More lucid thinkers understand that the priority of the moment must be to unite all who oppose big government in a joint effort to defeat the Democrats. Any strategy other than this will serve only to enable the enemies of liberty. Only fools would knowingly facilitate the plans of the progressives.
Scott Armstrong
Once they break the reconciliation rule the rule is broken for good and the rule of the simple majority will become the new standard in the senate. In their fever to pass a flawed and unpopular health care bill Democrat leaders are creating the very precedent future simple Republican majorities will use to enact their own legislative wish list.
Prudent heads within the Democratic Party should be providing this counsel to their colleagues. Has it not occurred to them that the action they are rashly preparing to take will surely come back to bite them? By their own legislative greed they are setting the stage for a new Republican majority to pass legislation roughshod over the soon to be Democrat minority as soon as 2013.
Democrats would be wise to lay off the health care bottle and sober up. Republicans on the other hand may simultaneously express outrage while they quietly prepare their own future senate “to do” list.
Scott Armstrong
Just a few years ago we heard the Democrats condemn the Republicans’ considered use of reconciliation for judicial appointments as the “nuclear option”; now they are hypocritically preparing to use the same process to pass their unpopular Health Care legislation.
I want to be the first to write that now is indeed the time for the nuclear option but the one I’m thinking of should be utilized this fall by the voters against the entire Democrat Party. They who have chosen to ignore the calls, pleas, and wishes of those they serve deserve no less than to be removed from the elected offices they have so thoroughly abused.
It is time to send the message to our elected officials that ignoring the will of the people has a real and immediate consequence. The Democrats’ dictatorial tactics on health care legislation provides the voters the perfect opportunity to demonstrate “who” is the boss and who works for whom. Any failure to make this clear at the ballot box this fall will have dire and enduring consequences. It’s time to take our country back, so do the right thing; hold every Democrat accountable this fall.
Scott Armstrong