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.
The writer of this article implies that if the GOP does’nt get it, the GOP will be relegated to a minor, third party status.
Please reread, and post again.
Semper Fi!