Posted on 11/03/2010 5:30:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
Celebrate Tuesday's election results, but don't forget who put you in office and why namely, the independent-minded Tea Party voters
Republicans are rightfully celebrating their recent successes in the midterm elections, recapturing the House and making major gains in the Senate. But before House GOP leader John Boehner starts measuring the curtains for the speaker’s office, he and his fellow Republicans would do well to remember the old proverb popularized by legendary University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal: “Dance with the one who brung you.”
In this case, that means: Don’t forget who put you in office and why namely, the independent-minded Tea Party voters.
Hence, the Republicans should take to heart three key lessons:
1) Americans don’t want “ObamaLite”
The 2010 vote was a powerful message from Americans rejecting the socialist policies of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid including the bailouts, the out-of-control federal spending, the higher taxes, and the nationalized health care scheme.
Voters elected Republicans to halt and reverse these policies not compromise to pass watered-down versions of those same bad ideas.
Some Republicans like Congressman Mike Pence appear to understand this:
[T]here will be no compromise on stopping runaway spending, deficits and debt. There will be no compromise on repealing ObamaCare. There will be no compromise on stopping Democrats from growing government and raising taxes.
In contrast, others like Congressman Darrell Issa appear willing to compromise:
It’s pretty clear the American people expect us to use the existing gridlock to create compromise and advance their agenda. … They want us to come together [with the administration] after we agree to disagree.
Whichever philosophy takes hold amongst the Republicans will determine whether they succeed or fail.
Americans don’t expect the impossible from the GOP. We understand that Obama still wields the presidential veto. But we do expect the Republicans to fight as hard as they can for principles of free markets, fiscal responsibility, and limited government.
For example, with respect to ObamaCare, we understand that the Republicans may not have enough votes to immediately repeal it. But a GOP-controlled Congress can “defund” it (i.e., not allocate money to implement the program) until they gain a sufficient majority in 2012 to fully repeal it.
For Congressional Republicans, preventing President Obama from inflicting yet more bad programs on this country might be the best (and most important) thing they can do until they have sufficient power to pass their own positive alternatives.
One of the first things aspiring doctors learn in medical school is the principle of “Primum non nocere” or “First, do no harm.” In other words, sometimes doing nothing is better than making things worse. This is just as true in politics as it is in medicine.
2) Don’t mistake this as a mandate to pursue a divisive “social conservative” agenda.
The Republicans’ electoral rebound has been driven by millions of independent voters like the Colorado small businessman Ron Vaughn, who told the New York Times, “I want the Democrats out of my pocket and Republicans out of my bedroom.”
As the New York Times article noted, swing states like Colorado are split such that “Democrats, Republicans and independents each account for about one-third of registered voters.” If Republicans wish to retain power after 2010, they will have to respect the wishes of these independents.
Similarly, the recurrent theme in the countless grassroots Tea Party rallies across the country has been for fiscal responsibility and limited government not social conservative issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
The Democrats mistook their electoral success in 2008 as a mandate to pursue a socialistic domestic agenda. They overreached and are now paying the political price. The Republicans should not make the same mistake and assume that their 2010 electoral success reflects a mandate to pursue a divisive social conservative agenda. Instead, they should focus on the issues important to the Tea Party voters who elected them into office namely, fiscal responsibility and limited government.
3) Respect the Constitution
The newly elected (or re-elected) congressmen and senators must remember that rightful authority flows from the U.S. Constitution. In a few weeks, they will all swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Nothing enraged Tea Party protestors more than seeing elected officials betray this solemn promise, whether it was Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) defending his ObamaCare vote by saying, “I dont worry about the Constitution” or Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) saying, “The federal government can do most anything in this country.”
And although some pundits like Dahlia Lithwick think it’s “weird” for legislators to consider whether a proposed bill is constitutional, that is indeed one of their primary responsibilities.
More importantly, Republicans need to respect the underlying principle of the Constitution namely, protecting individual rights. A proper government protects our rights by protecting us from criminals who steal, murder, rape, etc., as well as from foreign aggressors. But it should otherwise leave honest people alone to live peacefully. In particular, government should protect our right to enjoy the fruits of our labors, not rob us to pay for stimulus packages or universal health care.
Thomas Jefferson understood this well when he said:
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
In conclusion, I’d like to again congratulate the Republicans on their electoral victory. They have been given a chance to block (and possibly reverse) many of the bad policies of President Obama. They have been given a chance to move America in the right direction. And they’ve been given a chance to earn the trust of the American people.
I hope the Republicans repay that trust by showing that they will indeed “dance with the one who brung them” and listening to the Tea Party voters who restored them to power.
CUOMO WOULD HAVE LOST IN A LANDSLIDE
We let them define the terms over and over again- this was NOT Bush’s fault, it was Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Andrew Cuomo..
and two of those bastards won last night
Excellent article.
I strongly advise conservative-minded Americans to pay heed to the 2nd argument. The TEA Party’s success is in large part due to the fact that it has made fiscal restraint and constitutional issues front and center. When these things are adhered to, the social aspects will come. When libs are denied the use of other people’s money, many will quickly realize they’re more “conservative” than they thought.
When I read that quote by Rep. Darryl Issa of California that what his constituents want is compromise and “agreeing to disagree”, I went to his website and tried to submit the following, only to find out that since I’m not a constituent, he’s not interested in my opinion. So rather than waste a perfectly good rant, I post it here:
I read an article this morning in the Wall Street Journal in which you were quoted as saying: “It’s pretty clear the American people expect us to use the existing gridlock to create compromise and advance their agenda,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.). “They want us to come together [with the administration] after we agree to disagree.”
You are wrong. The American people who just took back the House, DO NOT want compromise with Obama’s agenda. We DO NOT want Obamalite. What we want is a RETURN TO CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES, SMALLER GOVERNMENT AND LESS SPNDING. This election was a resounding denouncement of Obama’s socialist agenda, and as Republicans there should be NO COMPROMISE with this agenda, which undermines our Constitution and our individual liberties at every turn.
We have will be watching, and we have only begun to fight. IT CAN NO LONGER BE BUSINESS AS USUAL IN WASHINGTON!!!
There. I feel slightly better.
Its pretty clear the American people expect us to use the existing gridlock to create compromise and advance their agenda, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.). They want us to come together [with the administration] after we agree to disagree.
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No. We want the restoration of American freedom, and that includes retaining the value of our work and risk, the free exercise of our religion, our prerogative to raise our children as they ought be, our right to defense of self an others, and the right to keep and to use our own land and property.
Politicians who continue to thwart such objectives will find the span of their careers cut short, and very abruptly.
Amen.
It is shocking (shocking, I tell you) that the congressional staffs of ALL our elected representatives are made up of the usual DC suspects who have been running these offices for years and are overwhelmingly Democrats.
Ditto the Federal Government Departments. All of'em.
I love that song... Petra rocks!
ALL REPUBLICAN WINNERS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
By far, the most important thing that you will do in the next two years in office will be based on who sits on the new House Rules, Ways and Means (Taxes), and Appropriations Committees. The Republicans who control those three committees will determine your entire agenda for the next two years.
1) They need to be packed with Tea Party Republicans who wish to slash the size, spending and taxation of the federal government.
2) The Appropriations Committee will decide how to cluster spending bills, so that all the programs you want to get rid of will be in the same bill. This means that there will be nothing the Senate or the president can do to stop you from ending those programs. All you have to do is agree to not vote on them, and they die.
3) The Rules Committee will determine how much the Democrats will be able to interfere with what you want to do. Cut them NO slack, because they have NEVER cut the Republicans any slack. Don’t let the RINOs get away with offering them a “fair deal”, which the RINOs gave to them in past, because they will never, ever return the courtesy.
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