On
Tuesday, November 2, 2010, the Republican Party won a great victory
that was broader and deeper than any election victory since 1928. Going
back to January of 2008, the pundits predicted that with far more
Republican seats at risk in the US Senate than Democrat seats, it was
likely that the GOP would make no gains in 2010 and that the
governorships would hold constant. Understanding that situation provides great perspective to the political earthquake that took place on Election Day.
Although
the final count is not yet in, some 60 seats have changed hands in the
United States House of Representatives and the GOP picked up at least 5
seats in the United States Senate. Equally
important, those elected to the Senate, like Rubio, Paul, Johnson, Lee,
Toomey, and possibly Buck and Rossi, will put a new face on the
Republican Party, one of principle and integrity rather than Republican
opportunism as personified by Lisa Murkowski. The
man who deserves the most credit for the election of these principled
conservatives is United States Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina,
head of the Senate Conservatives Fund (www.senateconservatives.com). Thankfully DeMint will also have much say as to who the Republican nominee for President will be in 2012.
But it is the emerging picture of the depth of the election that makes it even more amazing. The
Republican Party picked up control of at least five additional state
legislatures and possibly as many as seven, giving the Party control of
more state legislatures than it has held since 1928. And
when the final tale of the tape is read, I’m sure we will find that the
GOP won more mayoralty races, more city and more county council races
than it has for more than 70 years.
Of
course, the amazing election success of the Republican Party in winning
state house races in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and
Pennsylvania is a 2012 storm warning sign for the White House. Unless,
like Bill Clinton, President Obama makes strong course corrections, he
will not survive the political hurricane which is brewing.
While
the name on the back of the jerseys of those elected to Congress may
say Democrat or Republican, this was not a Republican victory. In fact, as Speaker-elect John Boehner made clear, the Republicans blew it the last time they gained power in 1994. Their spending policies were virtually indistinguishable from the Democrats who preceded them. The
Republicans lost not because the Democrats had new ideas (when was the
last time you have ever heard of any new idea coming from the
Democrats?), but because Republicans abandoned their traditional
commitment to limited Constitutional government.
What the GOP has now is an opportunity. It
is an opportunity to prove that they have limited government principles
and convictions that determine their course of action, not political
expediency that is solely self-serving. We can and should be encouraged by the victory statement of Speaker-elect John Boehner.
The
election results were a great victory for the common sense conservative
movement which has most recently manifested itself in the form of the
Tea Party. The Tea Party itself is fueled by ideas. Rather
than being “know nothings,” as the mainstream news media would have us
believe, the Tea Party movement is at its core an intellectual movement. The leaders and participants in the Tea Party understand the principles of limited government. They
don’t just blindly believe that freedom in a society cannot exist
without an economic free market, they understand why that is the case. As witness to this fact, consider that the classic economic primer on free market economics, The Road to Serfdom,
by Friedrich von Hayek, which was written and published prior to World
War II, reached the New York Times best seller list in the last 12
months. The Democrats bragged that they did not read the more than 2,000 page bill that was Obamacare, but the Tea Party members did. And
while Democrat candidates and legislators have limited knowledge of the
United States Constitution, Tea Party members distribute and read it
carefully. The Tea Party, for
the most part, consists of good Americans who care about others, respect
the law, teach their children good manners, have a strong moral code,
are well educated, and worship the God of their forefathers.
On
the other hand, today’s Democratic Party is, in general, the real “know
nothing” Party without intellectual depth, historical perspective,
common sense, or faith or belief in anything but gaining more power over
the people and personal aggrandizement. The
Democratic Party is not based on principles, but rather on cobbling
together support from a bunch of special interest groups that they keep
in line by handing out largess supplied by American taxpayers. It is a Party that has sold its soul by appealing to the most base instincts of the American people. They set poor against rich, black against white, men against women, workers against employers, young against old. For
the most part, its leaders are bereft of personal compassion, love of
country, and respect for the Founders’ principles that provide for a
free and just nation. They see America as the source of evil, not the good, generous and great nation that it really is.
When Barack Obama was elected to the White House by a slim majority of 53%, he became the President of a divided nation. He promised to be a healer, a unifier, a President to all Americans. Instead,
he became a divider, an antagonist, who looked upon the broad swath of
hardworking middle class Americans as his “enemies.” Instead of building up the nation and bringing Americans together, he chose to govern against the clear wishes of the people. He
set about not to improve and rebuild America, but to “remake it” into
something entirely foreign and distinct from the Constitutional limited
government created by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams and the
other Founders. He appointed
powerful Czars like Van Jones, a self proclaimed Communist, who worked
outside the framework of government to implement a far left agenda. He bowed to dictators. He kowtowed to tyrants. Without Constitutional authority, he took over banks and major segments of the economy. His Attorney General made a sham of equal justice under the law. Obama apologized for the United States. He became a willing puppet of the union bosses. With
a complicit Congress he spent money we didn’t have on a stimulus that
created no jobs, but served only as a payoff to loyal politicians and
union bosses. With his leftist
cohorts in Congress, Reid and Pelosi, He rammed through a socialist
health care law that, if left in place, will destroy the greatest health
care system in history and that will place a financially unsustainable
burden on generations yet unborn.
The response of the electorate was predictable. The
election on November 2nd was a full, deep, and broad repudiation of the
progressive/liberal agenda put forward by an overreaching Democratic
Party that has been captured by leftist ideologues. And this victory is just the beginning.
It’s
not only the White House that is up for grabs in 2012, but the
Democrats also face a dismal picture when it comes to the races for US
Senate that year. Of the 33 seats that will be contested in 2012, 20 are currently held by Democrats. Of those 20 seats, 11 states were carried by the McCain-Palin ticket. In
other words, the Democrats had better brace for yet a second tidal wave
of the size of the 1932 elections which swept Franklin D. Roosevelt to
President. Only this time, the winners will have a different title on the back of their jerseys.
Yes, it was a great election victory. More important, it is just the beginning.
The bloodletting will soon commence in the Democratic Party. The far left radicals think Obama didn’t go far enough left. The career Democrats who saw their Party decimated are angry and out for blood. They know that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid unnecessarily led their Party down this path to a massive defeat. It’s not a question of if Obama will have a primary opponent, but rather who that opponent will be. It’s
not a question of if there will be bloodletting internal fights within
the Democratic Party, but rather who will come out the victors.
Now is not the time to sit back and relax or celebrate our victory. It
is the time to press on with resolve and determination to return our
nation to the principles and ideals that made this the greatest nation
in the history of the world. It
is the time to donate, to work, and to spread the message that limited
Constitutional government is the only framework that secures freedom and
prosperity for this and future generations of Americans.
May God continue to bless America!
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