Now, It's About Governing, Not Politics

Townhall.com ^ | November 6, 2014 | Jackie Gingrich Cushman

[Kaslin]

Part of the allure and fascination of politics is that you don't know what's going to happen until election night is over and all the votes have been counted. It is real-life, high-stakes drama. In the 1970s, it was volunteers who would call in the vote tallies from the precincts. They would be written on the blackboard and the totals calculated as the votes were called in.

Nowadays we rely on the Internet to give us information on where the races end up. Unless you know what counties come in first, it's hard to decipher the status of the races. In Georgia, for instance, the urban counties are normally more Democratic-leaning, and the suburbs and rural counties more Republican.

The wave of GOP wins was much larger this week than many pundits had anticipated. As of Wednesday at 7 a.m. EST, on the Real Clear Politics website, Republicans had picked up seven Senate seats (giving them 52 and ensuring Republican control) and 12 House of Representative seats, giving them 243 total seats. Three governorships were picked up by Republicans as well, leaving the total count for governors at 31 Republicans to 15 Democrats.

This was not just a good night for Republicans -- it was a great night.

There were several upsets. Bruce Rauner (R) won the governorship of Illinois, Obama's home state, beating incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn. Republican Larry Hogan beat Democrat Anthony Brown in the Maryland governor's race. Republican Joni Ernst won the Iowa Senate seat. Thom Tillis (R) beat Kay Hogan (D-Incumbent) for the North Carolina Senate seat.

In my home state of Georgia, where for months leading Democrats have been talking about potentially picking up both the open Senate seat and the governorship, Republicans won big. David Perdue (R) won the Georgia Senate seat, beating Michelle Nunn (D), and Gov. Nathan Deal (R) beat Jason Carter (D). In both contests, the Republicans won 53 percent of the votes versus 45 percent for the Democrats -- thereby avoiding a run-off.

Republicans also picked up a House seat in Georgia, with Rick Allen beating incumbent John Barrow in the 12th district. Georgia -- which many had been claiming before Tuesday night was turning blue -- appears to be quite red indeed.

While the word "mandate" might be used by a few Republicans, the best word is once again "change." Voters were ready for a change -- a change from President Obama. A change from a country where big government is championed as not only the solution to all problems, but as the creator of all jobs -- to a country where people are empowered, set free and government becomes the last resort -- not the first thought.

This is not so much an election where Republicans won, but an election where Democrats -- in particular Obama -- lost.

Republicans will be wise to see this as an opportunity that can easily be wasted if they are not careful. After watching Washington government not working for years, voters are ready to see action and effectiveness rather than rhetoric and politics.

Republicans would be wise to use this opportunity not to try to force through everything they want starting on day one, but to move deliberately and systematically toward the goal of governing the entire country.

By that, I mean governing both Republicans and Democrats.

At the beginning, the Republicans should focus on execution by rapidly passing bills -- first on bipartisan issues that Obama will have to sign, and then moving to more partisan issues that will allow for clear, clean lines to be drawn for the 2016 election.

While the Republicans are busying being effective and making Washington work, they should also be focusing on the long term -- reaching out to women, minorities and anyone who is willing to work with them.

Winning is not about a short-term gain of seats, but should instead be about setting the stage for a larger win down the road. This requires that the Republicans govern the entire country.

This is the chance for Republicans to reach out, be inclusive and ensure that all Americans can have a brighter future together.

[Cowboy Bob]

The first act of the new congress would be to repeal all the Obamunist laws that were passed over the past 6 years, and nullification of all of Obama’s executive laws.

I would also suggest that no new attorney General is approved. Make Holder stay until the bitter end.

[Yosemitest]

Bipartisan?
OH HELL NO!
Get up in their faces and OFFEND the 'RATs with every bill you pass.
Make them explode with their screaming lunacy!
Use their own rules and tactics against them.
DESTROY THEM !

I read a great article by Sheriff Jim R. Schwiesow, Ret. written February 4, 2011 from "NewsWithViews.com" and here's part of it.

COMPROMISE – A DIRTY WORD
Compromise – is defined as:
“A middle way between two extremes”

If this is a literally correct definition, and I believe that it is,
what then are we to do when the two extremes at the opposite ends of the plane are
that which is moral
and that which is immoral?
Is it possible that a righteous compromise can be accomplished
when such a compromise, by the very definition of the word, must contain the elements of an extreme that is in and of itself evil or wicked ?

Compromise is as old as humanity;
compromise began as a human endeavor to attempt to escape the penalty for the transgression of God’s laws
and to mitigate or contravene the absoluteness of God’s word.
Compromise is man’s way
to lessen the seriousness of disobedience to immutable laws and dictums,
or to excuse or condone such disobedience altogether.
No good thing comes from compromise.
Man’s accommodation of transgressions by compromise is not a defense for iniquitous acts in the eyes of God.
Compromise is the devil’s invention;
God who is perfect in every way will not be conciliated by the conditions of a compromise.

Compromise was introduced into the lives of men in the Garden of Eden by that serpent of old, Satan,
and will remain with men until the Lord Jesus Christ brings this world to an end - which He will inevitable do - and establishes His Kingdom.

THE FRUITS OF COMPROMISE
Most people have come to believe
that compromise is a useful tool
and that the negotiations thereof have brought about good things and useful policies.
If one examines that belief closely it soon becomes apparent that
there are no useful results that accrue to negotiated compromise on any level.
In fact most often
compromise actually breeds dissention and strife,
which in turn leads to more compromise.
In short compromise feeds upon itself and eats up that which is just and right in the process.

To live in a world of compromise is to live in a world without absolutes,
and yet we know that the entire universe as well as the lives of men are managed, controlled, and kept within irrevocable bounds by the absolutes established by Almighty God.
We violate those bounds, via compromise of any kind, at our peril.

Political negotiations (compromise) in regard
to the step down from the safeguarding of the sanctity of life
and from the immutable right granted by God to be defended against being murdered -
as set forth in the sixth commandment
- has enabled an American medical assassination machine
that has claimed nearly double the number of lives of the combined number of military and civilian deaths attributable to World War II.

The killing of innocent babies has reached record heights.
The lives of twenty-four percent of all unborn babies are delivered into the hands of the serial killers of the medical community.
A baby is murdered every twelve seconds,
and it is estimated that in this country alone there have been ninety-two million living beating hearts stilled by the bloody hands of the legal abortionists.
This conspiracy to commit murder,
this aiding and abetting of murder,
this disconnect between the forbidden pre-meditated murder of living adults and the sanctioned pre-meditated murder of living babies
has been wrought by a politically mediated compromise between
those who claim the right to murder babies
and those who know God’s absolute prohibition of murder.
And there is more.

Now continuing…compromise on morality resulted in the condoning of, and an exponential increase in, the filthy - God condemned - practice of sodomy and promiscuous sex.
For every compromise of God’s word a penalty is exacted.
Aids rapidly achieved endemic proportions, first in the United States and then in the rest world.
We were told that Aids was a disease of monkeys that had migrated to men.
The inventiveness of the scientific community and the political apologizers who defend such appalling and execrable behavior
often find fertile ground in the credulous minds of a spiritually deprived people.
I’m not done.

POLITICAL COMPROMISE CONTINUES TO DESTROY THE REPUBLIC
Today as never before in our history the dishonorable who control our social destiny via their political intrigues
subject the nation to a slow death by way of political compromise.

Compromise through ill-conceived trade agreements has destroyed domestic industry and extinguished millions of jobs.
Compromise on sound financial practices has destroyed the housing market, seriously damaged the economy and crippled small businesses.
Compromise on immigration has demolished the social structure, bankrupted state and local governments, critically imperiled national security and jeopardized the safety and well-being of the people.
And compromise on moral integrity has corrupted the youth, encouraged extreme vice and given license to social prurience.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END
In a recent article I wrote
that from this time forward
the people of this nation will not know a day of peace,
there will be no good news, each bad day will fade into another equally bad day,
and the black and ghostly apparitions of the former will blend with the grim and ghastly tidings of the new.
The Lord has departed from a people that have departed from Him and prostituted themselves before heathen gods,
a people who will in the coming days loathe themselves for the evils that they have committed in all of their abominations.
They will surely know that He is the Sovereign God who will carry out His word
to do evil unto them that defy His word and deny His Lordship over all of creation.

As I write this piece
the nation is seized by a 2,000 mile long arctic blast of an unprecedented magnitude;
each season delivers devastation of Biblical proportions.
Tornadoes ravage, floods inundate, conflagrations gobble up thousands of acres of trees and foliage and lumbering mudslides follow in the wake of these,
hurricanes terrify the coasts, and hail, ice, and snow bring cities and towns to a standstill.
Truly the day of the Lord is at hand.

One who reads these words and does NOT understand or relate to that which has been written
can be thought to possess one or more of the following character deficiencies:
deep perversion, callous indifference, abysmal illiteracy, or appalling ignorance.

Believers in God’s word know
that ignorance of a secular kind is directly attributable to a lack of spiritual discernment.

Solomon gives a litany of dangers that await the man who lacks Spiritual discernment:

“To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Who leave the paths of uprightness,
to walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her return again,
neither take they hold of the paths of life.
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.”
[Proverbs 2:12-22]

A modern translation:

"Wicked and perverse men are scattered like land mines across the paths of our lives.
Without discernment we will soon be following them into the dark of destruction.
The adulteress, every man’s worse nightmare, will seduce those who cannot see past her beauty and promises.
Behind her attraction lies the steps that descend to hell.
No one who goes to her returns,
but how can anyone know this apart from God Himself telling us."
[Proverbs 2:12-22]

Read Compromise Is a Dirty Word for Club for Growth.

We will never unify under "Establishment Republicans" .
"Establishment Republicans" have more in common with the Democrats, than they do with Conservatives.
The weak candidates are "Establishment Republicans", weak on national security, amnesty for illegals, abortion, and government spending.
"Establishment Republicans" scream "COMPROMISE".
And people who study the Bible know that COMPROMISE almost always leads to destruction.
These "Establishment Republicans" are being weeded out, one by one, and slowly but surely, the TEA Party is taking over.

Take a good long look at where "Establishment Republicans" ALWAYS take us.

[nathanbedford]

At the beginning, the Republicans should focus on execution by rapidly passing bills -- first on bipartisan issues that Obama will have to sign, and then moving to more partisan issues that will allow for clear, clean lines to be drawn for the 2016 election.

The admonition sounds good but the problem for the Republican Party is that it will run out of unity perhaps even before it runs out of issues of bipartisan agreement. There is not just a chasm between Republicans and Democrats but between Republicans and conservatives. The danger is that establishment Rino Republicans will combine with Democrats against conservatives. If that sounds far-fetched, consider the history and prospects of amnesty.

In any event, the Republicans must decide if they really do want to govern.

Consider the headline of this article:

Now, It's About Governing, Not Politics

If it is indeed about governing and not Politics the Republican establishment must determine to govern. That means they must deploy the tools granted them by the Constitution to govern from the legislative branch. But the establishment has thrown away those tools already by proclaiming that it will not exercise the power of the purse, will not conduct hearings investigating the Obama administration, will not invoke impeachment.

In short, the Republican establishment has concluded that it is not there to govern but to politic. If the Republican establishment wants to govern it must step up, it must actually govern.

[Timber Rattler]

The Governing Trap

[Sivad]

We know there is a media onslaught heading toward the people we have elected and toward the GOP in general. It will be a real shitstorm of hate and lies. Will they play it like BushGW and get bounced in the next elections or will they
grow a pair and organize against it? Psssst, MSGOP, the
MSM is not, and will not be your friend, ever.

[Tennessean4Bush]

Not possible.

[Yosemitest]

Good article, and worth my time to read.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

They are incorrect, because right now governing is ALL about politics. Specifically, reversing the political decisions that were made by the Democrats instead of governing.

This isn’t governing, per se, because you cannot govern the illegitimate, you can only dispense with it.