Congratulations to Scott Brown on his historic victory yesterday in Massachusetts. The people of Mass. voted for the country on Tuesday, and put into place the only chance conservatives have of derailing the liberals; unchecked power.
Any political party dreams of the opportunity to be able to enforce their agenda without any real opposition. That may sound good if you're the party in command, but unchecked, or absolute power has a tendency to corrupt. It will lead politicians down paths they would have never believed possible, and toward problems they never imagined.
Such is the case with the Democrat Party. The unchecked power they received in 2008 was clearly not a mandate to do whatever they wanted. It was merely a desire by the people to change what the country had for the previous eight years. Unfortunately, voters jerked their knees too much in '08, and gave Dems too much power. Yesterday's election in one of the most liberal states in the country proved that. The people declared that they wanted that power to be balanced.
What is great about the Brown victory is that he campaigned on very specific things. His campaign was all about breaking the Dems' super-majority in the Senate, and stopping the legislative train wreck in Washington. Where the Democrats didn't have a real, straight forward mandate in 2008, Congress and the President now have a clearly defined mandate from the voters in Massachusetts, and it's contrary to the current legislative plan.
Now, with that being said, Republicans should also take note. The MA voters' mandate is a shift toward the conservative. The notion that the GOP should be a moderate or liberal party has now been debunked. The GOP would do well to throw out the progressive voices in their midst, and return to being America's true conservative party.
Additionally, Republicans should prepare for a couple of things. This coming November will likely bring a huge swing in Congressional seats. No party can make as many unpopular decisions as the Democrats have, and still keep their power. Should the GOP return to power in Congress, there are two key things that Republicans need to remember.
1) Don't get cocky. When the party won Congress in 1994, it didn't take long for the power to go to the heads of the new power mongers. Within four years, the Contract with America had been shelved for special interests and personal gain. By 2006, the People had their fill and began moving power to the Democrats.
So, should Republicans regain Congress in the fall, they need to remember the mistakes of their past, and keep a level head about the offices they hold.
2) Don't become wimps. The GOP had been the minority party for so long, that when they won the majority in 1994, they didn't know how to act like winners. Instead, they acted like wimps. Areas where they could have and should have followed through on the public mandate (Contract with America), they ended up compromising with a powerless opposition. No politician should ever compromise when their constituents give them a clearly defined mandate.
Why must the Democrats be demonized. Republicans have made many unpopular decisions too which is why Obama was voted in. Just want to see the blame spread fairly..that is all.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you re-read the post. Point number one points out very clearly the biggest mistake Republicans made over the past two decades. They threw away the conservative ideas that gained them the majority in favor of power, greed and the moderate philosophy.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans didn't lose Congress because of George Bush. They lost it, because they quit being conservatives.
Obama won the White House, not necessarily because of the war on terror, but because he was perceived to have mishandled the economic collapse. When Bush sold out his conservative roots to expand government with the bail out, voters wanted nothing to do with it, and went with the only alternative.
Democrats get the biggest bullseye, because it is they who are in power now, and it is they who have completely disregarded the public's wishes all in the name of pushing through an agenda few really want. And, that agenda isn't designed to help the public so much as it is designed to keep themselves in power.
Everything the Democrats have done over the past year has led to increased anger among the people. At no time during the previous eight years have you heard discussions of possible rioting in the streets or revolts against the government. We haven't had those yet, but if the Dems ignore the wishes of the people and shove health care down our throats, there will be riots, demonstrations, and maybe even a revolt or two.
I don't see those things happening with the GOP policies.