What’s a good Republican voter to do now?
by Bob Livingston
Republican voters believed they had sent a message to Washington in November when they voted to increase the GOP majority in the House and give Republicans a Senate majority for the first time since 2007.
If a message was sent, it was not received. Weeper of the House of John Boehner got only a token challenge for his speakership. Most of the new freshmen sent to Congress to change the status quo in the House turned into congressweasels before they’d even moved their furniture into their new Capitol Hill offices. That’s even quicker than usual. Normally, they hold out a few months before they turn into undead psychopaths out for perks, power and the aggrandizement of the establishment.
Even though polls showed 60 percent or more of Republican voters wanted a new speaker of the House to replace the orange-tinged faux conservative, and even though reports were that congressional phone lines, faxes and emails were ringing off the hook or bulging with calls to oust Boehner, all but 25 of the so-called “conservatives” in the House bowed to the establishment and voted to grow government and continue to capitulate to the undocumented usurper currently despoiling the people’s House. The elites, as always, held on to their power.
Boehner moved quickly to retaliate against his challengers for being so uppity as to deign to vote as their constituents demanded. It sends a message that you toe the party line, regardless of your conscience or the wishes of the voters. Retaliation of that sort is small-minded, petty and a sign of profound insecurity. It’s also part of the nature of the psychopathy that draws people to politics. They go to Washington for prestige, payola and privilege; and they retire rich. Any perceived threat to this reality must be crushed, and crushed quickly, lest it take root.
Boehner is now beginning his third term as speaker. He had promised to serve only one. Of course, he’s promised a lot of other things over the past several years and not delivered. Like most of the political class, for Boehner a promise is good only so long as it is useful to fool enough voters to result in another term. Once the election’s behind them, they go back to the business of legislating more pork for their cronies — so that some can be kicked back into their pockets — and growing fascist government. He’s still trying to fool people by rejecting claims he’s part of the “establishment.”
The capitulators came up with all manner of justifications for selling out to the establishment. Rep. Mo Brooks, now a former Tea Party favorite from North Alabama, was excoriated on his Facebook page after he posted his excuse for casting a vote for Boehner:
Despite serious reservations, today I voted for John Boehner for House Speaker because there was no better option before me. I would have loved the opportunity to elect a principled Speaker who shares Alabama’s conservative values. Unfortunately, that was not a viable option because we lack the votes to elect such a Speaker… I don’t support chaos and government shutdowns. I believe it unwise and counterproductive for the GOP Congress’ first act to be a dysfunctional inability to elect a Speaker followed by chaos… Hence, the best option was voting for House Speaker John Boehner. So I did…
The post drew almost 900 responses, the vast majority of them negative. Tony Lauffer’s response was typical: “Mo Brooks: The REASON no conservative candidate had a chance is because SPINELESS, GUTLESS, UNPRINCIPLED PEOPLE LIKE YOU FAILED TO GET BEHIND ONE EARLY AND PROMOTE THEM!!!! YOU SHOULD BE RECALLED BY THE GOOD, CONSERVATIVE PEOPLE OF ALABAMA!!!!”
Unfortunately for Brooks’ constituents, there is no provision for recalling a candidate in Alabama.
Mia Love, a darling of the Tea Party and conservatives, at least before Wednesday, sounded much like Brooks in a Washington Examiner interview. “There were no qualified or notable campaigns for speaker within the Republican Party other than John Boehner,” Love said. “Casting a vote for a candidate who has not actively campaigned and does not have the support to be speaker is an indirect vote for Nancy Pelosi, and I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi.”
To paraphrase Dame Clinton, what difference does it make? After the vote, Boehner was photographed hugging and smooching on his predecessor, Pelosi — an awkward, if not revealing, moment.
The status quo of the political monopoly remains. The government wins again. Whoever wins, you lose. Politicians are politicians under any brand. They are paid and pensioned by Washington. Where do you think that their loyalties lie?
The quicker we come to terms with reality about politics in America, the closer we come to serious action to restore freedom of the individual. Conservatives need to quit playing the part of an ever-returning battered spouse and recognize the Republican elites will just slap you around again next time a vote on an important liberty-related issue arises.
The government and its politicians are at war with us and they are the only ones that recognize it. How many Americans actually know that government hit men can arrest you, search you without a warrant, seize property without cause and not return it, and freeze bank accounts so that legal defense can’t be hired. All this and they may never charge you with a crime.
We are fully aware that few people can grasp the limits of freedom imposed upon Americans. We have been taught “freedom and democracy” so long that we love big brother no matter what.
So what is a good Republican voter to do?
First and foremost, he must come to terms with the fact that voting for more Republicans to send to Washington will not change the status quo. Who remembers how big and how fast government grew under the “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush when he had a Republican Congress? In seven years under Bush, federal spending jumped from $1.86 trillion in 2001 to $2.98 trillion in 2008, a jump of 60 percent or a growth rate of 7 percent.
Bush and Republicans gave us No Child Left Behind, the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, perpetual war and bailouts. Those measures are certainly not conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
Though it is certainly no guarantee for success, Republican voters should concentrate on finding candidates for state and local elections who will uphold the Constitution they swear to uphold and who are willing to take a bold stand for state’s rights and against federal tyranny. It’s at the state level that nullification of unconstitutional federal laws is to take place, as outlined by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1789.
If you feel you must take on national issues, push for term limits and the repeal of the 17th Amendment.
Gradualism — a glacial move away from federalism led by national politicians who used and continue to use the Federal Treasury to buy votes and reward crony corporations and intrude into state issues, and used by an activist federal judiciary — has turned republicanism on its head and into a fascist system of tyranny and oppression. To peacefully restore constitutional governance will be a gradual and difficult process, and its probability of success remains in doubt.
Link:
http://personalliberty.com/whats-good-republican-voter-now/
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