Last Chance for GOP

As Republicans enjoy a massive victory on Tuesday, party leaders should not misunderstand the message of the public. They should not feel too comfortable about their large margin of victory. Indeed, the GOP will be on a very short leash. If they return to the big government Republican policies of George W. Bush, their reign of power will be incredibly short-lived.

During the Bush years, the Republicans in Name Only (RINO’s) were in charge. In that era, a budget surplus turned into $458 billion in deficits, the government added entitlement programs like Medicare prescription drugs and social spending exploded with liberal legislation such as “No Child Left Behind.” In addition, under Bush, a brand new federal bureaucracy was created, the Department of Homeland Security, which took over management of multiple agencies including FEMA and failed miserably during Hurricane Katrina.

After the Bush years and twenty one horrific months of President Obama, voters do not want such big government solutions for our societal problems. In this election, voters sent a very loud and clear call for less government and a return to the bedrock constitutional principles which made this nation great. In this election, voters did not cast a ballot for the Republican Party, they voted against the socialist agenda of Barack Obama and his allies in Congress. They voted against a party that tripled the already large budget deficits of George W. Bush. They voted against a party that added more to the national debt in 21 months than the nation accumulated in the first forty presidential administrations, spanning two hundred years.

Obama has pushed so far to the left that the country naturally turned to the Republicans as a counterbalance to his radical agenda. Historically, the party out of power wins big in mid-term elections. In 1994, Republicans captured 52 house seats and took control of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower years. In 2006, Republicans lost control of Congress as Democrats benefitted from massive voter dissatisfaction with the Bush presidency.

Clearly, the Democrats abused their power in Congress and the last four years have been a nightmare for our country. Democrats pursued policies which helped create the worst economy since the Great Depression. While Democrats have controlled Congress, the stock market has lost fallen, the trade and budget deficits have soared, unemployment has more than doubled, and the housing industry has been devastated.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is such a hated figure that “Fire Pelosi” rallies were held all across the country. In one poll of Independent voters, Pelosi scored a pathetic approval rating of 8 percent. On Tuesday, Pelosi and her leftist colleagues in Congress were fired for just cause. However, Republicans cannot use this leadership opportunity to enact more sugar coated liberalism. As Ronald Reagan stated many times, the Republicans must raise “a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors.”

In these troubled times, Americans want to see real action, not just rhetoric. They want to see the Republicans reduce the size of government, push for tax reduction and work to rollback the socialist programs of President Obama, especially the disastrous healthcare plan. They don’t want Republicans to compromise with President Obama on a watered down version of his agenda.

If Republicans do not use this opportunity to pursue a real conservative program and fight Obama on these important matters, they will never be given another chance to lead. This is the Republican Party’s last chance to get it right.

The tea party activists who have helped make this victory possible will not have much patience. If the GOP fails this time, the party will crumble and a new conservative party will emerge. The RINO’s have had their chance for success and have failed. It is now time for true conservatives to step forward and show the country that the timeless truths of the Founding Fathers will work once again and save our nation from total catastrophe.

This article is just so much nonsense. Our country has several large voting blocs that decide how elections will turn.

We have small government advocates who consistently vote for candidates that they believe will try to hold the line on government power and spending as much as possible. Sometimes, these people will vote for candidates who campaign as true small government advocates. Other times, they will hold their noses and vote for candidates who are the lesser of evils. Some small government advocates will make exceptions for the military and for military action that they see as necessary for our security and safety.

We have large government advocates who consistently vote for candidates that they believe will add to the size and scope of government. These voters believe that government is the solution to every problem, and they will vote for candidates who are pushing for more government action. They may have to choose among candidates based on the kind of action they want, but they will choose more government.

We have people who represent a middle ground. They recognize that not every government program works and they recognize that some problems can't be solved by government. At the same time, they will not long embrace a purely minimalist philosophy. Often, religious conservatives fit this mold. When they are out of power, they speak passionately about the danger of letting the government meddle in every decision or every issue, but when they gain power, they suddenly see no problem with trying to use government power to push people into living according to their wishes.

Finally, we have a vast bloc of voters who really don't understand political ideology in terms of big government or small government. They look at whether they have a good job that allows them to live a comfortable life. They look at whether they feel safe in their homes and communities. They look at whether they think the system is allowing others to cheat. If things look good, they vote for incumbents. If things look bad, they vote against incumbents.

This week, most people in the third and fourth groups voted with those in the fourth group to deny half of one branch of the federal government to those who were in power. If things are better in two years, they'll shift in a way that keeps a big government president in the Oval Office but probably keep a smaller government House in Republican hands. The Senate might swing by a small amount in either direction. If by some disaster the big government types regain solid control of Congress in 2012 but the economy is horrible in 2014, we'll see the same kind of shift towards the Republicans in 2014 regardless of how they do in the next two years.

Exactly what does anyone expect the Republican House to do in the next two years? Conservative legislation will pass the House. Liberal legislation will pass the Senate. Conference committees will try to resolve differences. Maybe they won't be able to find compromises and nothing will pass Congress. In that case, nothing will change for two years. If they can find a compromise, that compromise won't be exactly what small government advocates want. If the compromise does too much to reverse the bad policies of the past four years, Obama won't sign the bill. This Congress won't be able to override any veto.

We won a wonderful victory this week, but the notion that we've put better people in Congress and can now sit back and wait for them to do something wonderful is silly. If the Tea Parties are made of people ignorant enough to believe in this vision of the future, the Tea Parties will be just another shallow fad in the history of American politics.

Winning the future will depend on remaining an active force. One of the most important contributions of the Tea Parties was that they created tremendous interaction between our elected officials and the voters at town hall type meetings. They need to continue creating this dialogue so that the small government message is not lost in the buzz around the beltway. We need these town hall meetings and other rallies to continue to draw people into political involvement. Tea Party members need to continue to educate themselves so that they can continue to educate their neighbors. We need to convert more people from those third and fourth groups of voters to the first group of voters who understand the value of keeping government small. Those voters will help us elect the majorities in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020 that might bring us out of the mess started by FDR in the 30's.

In saying to the GOP House, "We put you there. Now we're going to expect to sit back and watch you do great things," the writer of this article sets the exact wrong tone.

I've reread the article multiple times, and all of my comments stand. The writer stupidly pretends that half of one branch of the federal government should allow the GOP to make big changes. The writer is either deluded, ignorant, or lying.

You and the writer both seem to be pretending that the small government wing of the GOP has the votes to control the GOP and the country. That situation would be nice, but reality is very different. We mobilized enough primary voters to deny nominations to some moderate to liberal GOP senate candidates, but in many cases, we still couldn't deliver those candidates victories in their states. While the counting will continue for a long time, we may not have been able to keep a senator who "doesn't get it" from winning in Alaska as a write-in candidate. We had some great victories Tuesday, but the "doesn't get it" wing of the Republican party is going to remain in power for a long time.

When you have something intelligent to say, please get back to me. You didn't do so well on this post.

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