During an interview – I believe it was on On The Record, I heard a good argument from Senator Mitch McConnell about how this whole “debt ceiling” deal went down.
He spoke about what was “won” from the conservative perspective and what comes next if you’re a person who believes, as do I, that spending is out-of-control and that the growth of government must be stopped.
Essentially, everything that happened comes down to the fact that conservatives only control one half of one chamber of Congress (The House). Therefore conservatives really only control one-third of the legislative process of government, if you include The House, The Senate, and The White House in control of the legislative process since The President must always sign off on any legislature.
And really, conservatives don't even really control The House, even though the media and the liberals – including, it seems, our Vice-President - will tell you America is “being held hostage by terrorists.” The Republican Party controls The House, and therefore the “progressive” agenda still has something to say about what happens in The House.
It is my humble opinion that the representatives who were elected to to the “Tea Party” uprising should be very proud of themselves. Whether or not you agree with everything they’ve done, they were elected to go to Washington D. C. and draw a line in the sand on behalf of their constituents, and with the exception of a few they did just that.
These Congressional Freshman did exactly what they were asked to do. They didn’t go make an issue of abortion or gay marriage; they went and made an issue about the size and scope of government, which is what really needs to be dealt with at the federal level. Our political system worked, and some people don’t like the results. So be it.
When it is all analyzed, however, the truth is that right now the “progressive” establishment holds most of the cards in the District of Criminals, and the progs are more interested in government maintaining the status quo than they are interested in creating real change, which is why in the end Boehner got the votes he needed to get this “deal” done. This deal allows government to continue to grow, spend, and destroy our future.
This is not Boehner's fault; this is the system we have to work within until we can really effect change.
I believe Boehner was an honest broker on the behalf of the conservative agenda. I believe Boehner, like McConnell, had a “leadership” role to play, because as McConnell said during this interview, if not for the 2010 election the progressive establishment would still have ultimate control and we’d be in worse shape than we are in today.
McConnell and Boehner had to do what they did, in order to gain a small victory.
Small victories give inspiration, and small victories gain momentum. Momentum helps win future victories, and eventually the side that wins enough small victories will win a few big battles and eventually win the war.
The Republican leadership got what they could get right now given what they have to work with.
We have a radical leftist in The White House and his lackeys Reid, Durbin, and Schumer in The Senate, and they all answer to George Soros.
Until we conservatives can vote ourselves into The White House and have control of The Senate, this is the best Boehner and McConnell could do. And for that I give them credit, because although we'll still be spending more after this deal, by voting in the group that we voted in during the 2010 midterms we definitely changed the discussion.
And that is change you can believe in.
4 comments:
Solomon, you are right on.
It's good to see a level head in the midst of so much emotion regarding this issue.
He is full of it. Not raising the debt ceiling would have been a victory. Imaginary cuts with permission to increase spending is an epic fail.
Pedaling, thanks for saying hi.
I think my time away has given me a new, slightly better perspective.
Getting out of the echo chamber helped me see things.. not so much differently, but I think I have become more open seeing the big picture.
I am still a conservative as tried and true as ever, but I have made an effort to tone down my partisan edge.
I'm pretty sure a few good conversations with intelligent and concerned family & coworkers who come from different belief systems have certainly helped.
We'll see where it all takes me. I am going to try writing more often, and I have started the Twitter thing for some fun too.
Trestin,
My hard-line conservative side wants to agree with you.
However, being old enough to remember just a bit of Reagan and quite a bit of Clinton, what I remember of both those eras is that to get what you want when you don't have control of all the cards in the deck, you have to play the ones you do have carefully. It's more a game of Rummy than it is a game of Gin.
There was no way we were going to get a lock on spending and a lock on the debt limit. It just wasn't happening. It wasn't getting past Reid, let alone Obama.
What we did was allow the hype to settle down. Obama's out there right now going on and on about an "imaginary crisis" and we know he is the one who created that imaginary crisis.
Now what we need is messaging.
Someone from the right with a tone that appeals to "independents" needs to get out there and explain exactly what happens to America if we continue the path of Obama and Reid.
The progs have spent 100 years doing their thing; it's not going to be easy, and we're not going to rid ourselves of their damage overnight.
If we're in this for the long haul, we are going to have to occasionally feel that we're taking steps back, knowing that they clear the path for long strides forward.
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