During the campaign, the Republicans introduced the "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA". This document promised to return Washington to Constitution governance. This idea rang true with the American voters and the Republican Party was swept to victory.
During the first weeks of the new and improved leadership, all went well as many of the provisions of "THE CONTRACT" were introduced, voted upon, and implemented. Then, for a reason GE&P has never fathomed, the new Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, had an epiphany. He decided that the manner in which the Republicans were governing had the appearance of being too harsh. He decided the only dignified and fair thing to do was to "reach out" to the former Democrat leadership and "share power". He decided he would make a stab at co-governing. He arranged it so Democrats would share power on committees. In other words, in the opinion of GE&P, he abdicated.
Well, we all know how this effort turned out. As soon as the Democrats had the opportunity, they saw to it that all conservative initiatives were vilified and soundly defeated. Does anyone remember the mantra "Republicans want Social Security to whither on the vine"? That was the end of THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA. It, then, became known as the contract "ON" America. Newt was forced out of office and the whole initiative went down the drain.
In order to easily define insanity, one needs only to observe someone who repeats a failed exercise, and each time, truly expects a positive outcome. Unfortunately, many American voters suffer from this malady. It has been proven again and again that Progressivism flatly does not work. But, the American voter, the eternal optimist, or the fool, looks around seeing that there are problems and concludes, "We just have to give it one more shot. Surely, it will work this time." This reasoning, or should we say this insanity, gave us Obamanomics.
Historically, Progressives have tried to bring about their goals by incrementalism. That has worked pretty well for them over the decades. You know, "Well, after all, it's just a penny increase in the sales tax so you'll never even notice." Or, "We're just going to see to it that 'the children' have health insurance." Or, "Social Security will be on an entirely voluntary basis and will never exceed 1%". This pattern worked pretty well until 2009. President Obama has turned out to be a very impatient sort of Progressive. He wants the entire plan to happen yesterday so he has overreached. It has only taken the American voters a year to conclude that, under the Obama Administration, the US is heading down hill like a pig on roller skates.
The first hint that the Obama plan was going awry was the rise of protests at congressional members' town hall meetings last summer. On the heels of this came the birth of the tea parties. This unrest and strong opposition to the Obama administration's policies and the Democrat controlled Congress manifested itself in the elections in VA and NJ, where the Republicans swept both contests. The coup de grace was the election of Scott Brown to fill the seat vacated by the death of Sen. Kennedy in Mass. Even to the normally brain dead Progressives, this last event was your basic attention getter.
Seeing the handwriting on the walls as a result of these defeats, the Obama administration is, now, making noises about being bipartisan. Suddenly, the past behavior of the Democrats is not supposed to be remembered. The Republicans are supposed to forget all the doors that have been slammed in their faces for the past year. Being totally out of touch with reality and, I might add delusional, President Obama is expecting Democrats and Republicans alike to all sit around the campfire and join in on a rousing chorus of Kum by ya. I have THIS to say about THAT.
If the Republicans believe that this president has truly changed his mind about his goals for this country, the insanity has leapt to the other side of the aisle. A majority of the American voters have made their wishes abundantly clear. They want no part of the Obama health care plan. They want no part of the Obama redistribution of wealth plan. They want no part of the Obama Tax and Trade bill. They want no part of the Pelosi/Reid heavy handed way of running the House and Senate. The majority of voters have had enough of this whole ruling bunch. The voters have shown some indications that they have confidence that a change of leadership will be in their best interest. The voters appear to be willing to give the Republicans yet another chance but they are watching to see how the GOP reacts to the Obama offer of bipartisan meetings. Republicans need to read history. When Democrats talk about taking a bipartisan approach they really mean "DO THINGS THE DEMOCRAT WAY". If the Republicans, once again, fall into this trap of "go along to get along", they can kiss goodbye their chances of success in the 2010 elections.
And, the most important issue of all, if they fail, so goes the last best chance to preserve our great republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment