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Jewish World Review Nov. 4, 2010/ 27 Mar-Cheshvan, 5771 Last Chance, Republicans By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Two Republicans, newly-elected Marco Rubio in Florida and re-elected Jim DeMint in South Carolina have already said exactly what the Beltway Republican establishment needs to hear. Rubio: "We know that tonight, power in the House of Representatives will change hands. We know that a growing number of Republicans will serve in the Senate as well and we make a grave mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party. What they are is a second chance." DeMint: "These Republicans know one thing: If they don't do what they say this time, not only are they out, but the Republican Party is dead, and it should be."
Both men are right on the money and the postmortem "analyses" of our hopelessly biased mainstream media demonstrate why: despite a blowout by Republicans in the House of Representatives, and substantial gains in the Senate, the MSM has decided that it is Republicans who must make concessions, not our radical leftist president and his Democrat soulmates in Congress.
Here's a better idea: put the conservative pedal to the metal and save the country from progressive overreach--and financial disaster.
Once again, Republicans will be up against two opponents. Note I used the word "opponents" as opposed to the president's characterization of people who disagree with his agenda. In a radio interview with Univision last week, he implored Latino voters to "punish our enemies." He tried to walk that dog back in a subsequent radio interview in which he offered up the idea that he "probably should have used the word 'opponents' instead of 'enemies.'" Not definitely. Probably.
Any questions, Republicans?
It is not enough for Republicans to beat back the Democrats. it's about time they learned to take on the media in no uncertain terms as well. For example, the first Republican interviewed by CBS's Katie Couric might want to ask if her producer Rick Kaplan was accurate when he said she was on a tour among what "she calls 'this great unwashed middle of the country' in an effort to divine the mood of the midterms.'" Perhaps that same Republican might even ask Ms. Couric--exactly as Ms. Couric did with Sarah Palin--what she reads in order to come to such an elitist conclusion.
For far too long, Republicans have sought the approval of people like Ms. Couric and other overtly compromised media figures posing as unbiased journalists. If they continue down that path, they are fools. It is simply not effective enough to challenge Democrats in Congress. Leftist media shills must be challenged just as forcefully. If that means Republicans have to be twice as well-prepared for interviews as their Democrat counterparts, so be it.
One thing is certain: an ever-increasing percentage of the population will love you for it. In case you didn't notice, the MSM did their absolute best to completely denigrate the Tea Party movement. They were called "racists," "teabaggers," "old white men," and a host of other epithets by pundits who could barely hide their contempt. You know what many of them are today?
"Winners."
And it's about time Republicans started acting like winners. Not in the arrogant sense, like Barack "I won" Obama, but in the quiet, determined manner of a party who should recognize that America is a center-right nation which just thoroughly repudiated the progressive agenda. The "great unwashed" are sick to death of a Congress which rammed health care down their throats in what may have been one of the most memorable displays of elitist arrogance in recent memory. They are beside themselves watching our so-called representatives telling us what to do, instead of the other way around. And they are utterly infuriated when Congress exempts itself from much of what they inflict on us.
Here's a suggestion: Republicans should propose a bill saying that members of Congress will enroll themselves in the same Social Security and health care programs that apply to ordinary Americans. That alone would engender an avalanche of goodwill, even as it would reveal the true character of any Congressman wiling to vote against such a measure. They should also unilaterally volunteer to cut the number of Congressional support staffers taxpayers underwrite.
Every Republican but the most obtuse among them knows why they took a beating in 2006 and 2008: it's because Republicans abandoned conservative principles. On the other hand, Democrats, who may be guilty of many things, stood fast by theirs even when it became apparent they would take a monumental beating for it. No doubt some Republicans will use that beating as a rationale for promoting a "move to the center."
That's a sucker's bet for two reasons. One, it wasn't Republican principles that alienated the electorate, it was their failure to live up to them; and two, the so-called center has been skewed so far to the left by the Democrats and their mainstream media enablers that many Republicans fail to realize something that ought to be obvious:
They are already in the center.
This media- and Democrat-calculated mischaracterization is something Republicans must continually explain to the public. For example, the current administration has run a trillion dollar-plus deficit this year alone, of which forty cents of every dollar is borrowed. Cutting both numbers in half is a "compromise," but that compromise would still leave over a five hundred billion dollar deficit financed by borrowing twenty cents on the buck.
How clueless are Republicans? They announced they want to cut $100 billion in spending next year.
That's like trying to bail out the Titanic with a thimble. If that's the best they have, they're in serious trouble.
America is in serious trouble. Turning it around will require serious people willing to do serious things. The days of "nibbling around the edges" are over. So is the political relevance of a political party willing to do so in order to keep their adversaries happy. Barack Obama and Democrats came to Washington, D.C. promising to do "big things. Republicans should return the favor as much as possible, given the limitations of capturing only the House.
Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio get it. Here's hoping they and others make it clear to everyone that they didn't come to Washington, D.C. to slow down America's progressive-led headlong rush towards oblivion, but to stop it dead in its tracks--no matter how much heat they have to take for it.
It will be a long hard slog, and the 2010 election is merely a first step. Perhaps the best a Republican House can do is blunt progressivism until 2012. But there is no better time than now to make the effort. In case Republicans hadn't noticed, the current Congressional approval rating is 19.8%, according to the Real Clear Politics website. That's their "mandate," the one worth remembering the next time some leftist media windbag is bemoaning the "radicalization" of America as a result of Tuesday's election.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is your last chance to stand on principles. Conservative principles. If you don't get it right going forward, there will be a third political party by the time the 2012 election rolls around.
Which party is that? Republicans, looking up at Democrats and the Tea Party.
Don't blow it, boys and girls.
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© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
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