A Grown-up Election
I’m not what you’d call a Pollyanna. In fact, I’m pretty sure if something can go wrong, it will. As for the glass being half empty or half full, I not only come down on the half-empty side, I’m pretty certain there’s a crack in the bottom of the glass that will drain the whole thing dry. Despite all that, I’m growing more and more convinced that November’s elections will mark an extraordinarily important turning point in the relationship between the government and the governed, and not simply because the Democrats are likely to have their clocks cleaned. Despite the efforts of the Left and their cohorts in the press to paint their opponents as ignorant, hate-mongering racists, this is shaping up to be a serious election in which serious people are weighing serious issues. It’s not about slogans and personalities and trivialities; it’s about deficits and government power and the Constitution and the courts and scores of other important issues. In short, we’re about to have a grown-up election.
Equally significant is the fact that our elected officials may actually be coming to grasp the serious mood of the electorate. This is not simply a case of exchanging your scoundrels for ours; it’s a call to dramatically alter our direction and focus seriously on the way government does business and its role in our lives. And if you dare to think the voters are kidding and you can go on with business as usual, they’ll be happy to throw you out, too, when the first opportunity presents itself. Bringing home the pork will no longer assure your permanent status in public life, nor will saying one thing while doing another, nor failing to come to grips in a serious manner with the challenges facing us. Voters really seem to mean business this time, and they’re chomping at the bit to express themselves.
It’s as if a series of revelations has suddenly washed over the voting public. They’ve seen the follies of their government and the deer-in-the-headlights look of its leaders when this nation’s citizens stand up and say, “Stop it! We’re in charge!” And they’re not being intimidated by efforts to silence them. They seem to be saying, “Racists? This country elected an African-American President, and now we’re racists? Hate-mongering? You look down on us and dismiss us and try to mischaracterize us, and we’re the haters?”
I’ve said before that this upcoming election feels different from any other I’ve experienced in my lifetime, and that feeling grows each day. Any politician ignoring the coming wave does so at his own risk. It’s going to be a grown-up election, and it could be a game-changer.
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
My comment on Peter's last thread is worth a re-post.
~Paules
I'm no longer concerned about what Obama might do. Nor am I concerned any longer how the Democrats will react. After all, this impending wipe out was generated as a spontaneous movement by grassroots conservatives (with a hat tip to Rick Santelli).
The next step come January will be to put the new Republican majority on notice: We put you here for a reason and we retain the power to remove you. If that means turning the tea parties loose on incumbent Republicans, so be it. With civility, dignity and respect of course, but we must hold their feet to the fire.
Job one is to return the federal government to fiscal sanity. I'm willing to defer on the social issues for a time. Step two will be to get the feds out of the business of public education. Return the power to state and local districts. The battle for the nation's public education system must be fought at the local level anyway. We'll have perhaps 37 Republican governors in various state houses around the country. Let's roll!
Re: A Grown-up Election
Paules: Let's roll, indeed!
Aug '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Perusing headlines this morning tells me there is a concerted effort, on this day after Labor Day, leading into fall, to overhype Republican prospects so that, sometime during the month, it will be possible to report that the lead has diminished, which it almost certainly will do a couple of times in the two months we now have before the election. You can feel the lock step of the disgraced media -- working happily behind the scenes to promote whatever it is they think is left of Obama's Fantasy Agenda.
Remember: they think we are stupid.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Yes, the people of the USA see this election as way to end the socialism enacted by Obama and the Democrat controlled House and Senate.
Going forward from 11/2/10 'We the people' must provide constant 'adult' supervision to our House and Senator members. For starters, we must clamor for actual cuts in government spending, the end of the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the IRS. The repeal of Obamacare, and when it is vetoed by BHO, the House must starve the Obamacare bureaucracy of the funds they need to ramp up this unwanted intrusion into our lives.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
I hope this post finds its way to Robert Bennett, Lisa Murkowski, Bob Inglis, and company. They could stand to absorb these ideas instead of shouting "woe is me" to every news outlet willing to throw five minutes at them.
Aug '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
So right, Pat. This election really is huge, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Granted, a large chunk of the electorate is motivated by principle, but we should recognize a majority are only concerned about jobs, jobs, jobs. This is the issue dominating the poll numbers.
If the Sophomore-in-Chief and his party had been able to deliver a lot of make-work jobs, with important-sounding titles and lots of benefits, Republicans might not stand a chance. This suggests that many Americans are, sadly, for sale to the highest bidder.
I really hope I'm wrong about this, and our fellow citizens truly are concerned about the Democrats' destruction of the Constitution, corruption of Congress, perversion of the law, and violation of every honest principle of government we've ever valued.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
I don't know Pat. The Labor Day launch of the Democrats' campaign has me filled with dread. There is a cynical attempt to put forward the notion that only the President and the Democrats are "doing" anything about the recession. And despite the wisdom of doing nothing, I still suspect that a lot of voters will find that alternative unsatisfying. Because there is no national voice able to stand up to the president's control of the news cycle, I fear that this pre-Labor Day moment might prove to have represented a peak in Republican prospects. The sheer number of *ironic* Labor Day-unemployment stories illustrates I think how controllable the media is by the White House agenda.
Jul '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
I've always been you have an oversized vessel sort of guy myself.
And it's time to reduce the size of that vessel, not add more water.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Roll Tide! Oh, wait...
Pat Sajak:
I’ve said before that this upcoming election feels different from any other I’ve experienced in my lifetime, and that feeling grows each day.
I always appreciate a little perspective from you old fogies.
Re: A Grown-up Election
Well, they were always going to hit back. It wasn't going to be a cakewalk -- no campaign ever is. But the key problem with the Obama team is that their big proposal is...more spending. Another stimulus. And I think that's not going to fly. Their best bet is to demonize the other side -- use words like "radical" and "risky" and "extreme" -- but I'm not sure that'll do much more than get out the base (if that). This seems like an electorate that actually wants something radical and extreme.
It'll be up and down until November. It always is. But I don't see a party message from the Democrats making much headway.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Rob Long
Well, they were always going to hit back. It wasn't going to be a cakewalk -- no campaign ever is. But the key problem with the Obama team is that their big proposal is...more spending. Another stimulus. And I think that's not going to fly. Their best bet is to demonize the other side -- use words like "radical" and "risky" and "extreme" -- but I'm not sure that'll do much more than get out the base (if that). This seems like an electorate that actually wants something radical and extreme.
It'll be up and down until November. It always is. But I don't see a party message from the Democrats making much headway. · Sep 7 at 9:47am
We gotta get you guys out of California.
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Rob Long
Well, they were always going to hit back. It wasn't going to be a cakewalk -- no campaign ever is. But the key problem with the Obama team is that their big proposal is...more spending. Another stimulus. And I think that's not going to fly.
What about this? Notice that the tax breaks only last two years. Anyway, I wonder what the voter response will be.
Aug '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
I've noticed the headline today about Dems shifting their focus to regulation when the Rs gain a majority. From what I understand, much of the health care bill and financial regulation bill consisted of blanks for some to-be-appointed regulatory body to fill in: "insert new regulations here."
If this is right, do any of y'all have a sense of how much damage can still be done even if conservatives make major gains?
I guess my question is in a way this: Beyond November, just how long and difficult is our fight to preserve liberty?
May '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Agreed, Hegesias. Congress can conceivably control the national pocketbook and defund Obamacare. But if they don't actually repeal it, then that means the next Democratic Congress can simply turn it on later. Defunding any program or agency isn't enough. Either it's legal foundation is destroyed or it will regrow, like a weed.
Jun '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
A grown-up election? Perhaps, but when it comes to the proverbial view of "the glass," forget the crack in the bottom. I smashed the dang thing years ago.
I agree with oleneo65 up at #4: We can't elect people hoping that they'll be the grown-ups in the room. We the citizen class have to be the ones to provide the adult supervision with vigilance. The public has to overcome its own attraction to distraction to maintain that watch and engagement. We're on mission now, but it doesn't end in November or in 2012. It will take generational focus to prevail.
Re: A Grown-up Election
Right -- that's the insidiousness of the Obamacare and financial reform, as you and Hegesias have pointed out: they've created an empty honeycomb, and now all they need is the honey. If past is prologue, the Republicans will spend all of their time trying to limit the amount of honey instead of smashing the honeycomb.
Wow. Interesting metaphor I just made up. I'm not sure it works, but I decided to go with it.
Re: A Grown-up Election
But unless we pollenate the Congress, the country will be stung again. Gee, this is fun, Rob!
Jun '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
Rob Long
Right -- that's the insidiousness of the Obamacare and financial reform, as you and Hegesias have pointed out: they've created an empty honeycomb, and now all they need is the honey.
And where there is honey, you will find...a sordid battle for the status of queen bee. In this case, the honeycomb is so massive, there is need for 1000 queen bees, each with their own dominion within the honeycomb, each fighting to expand their territory with the other queens, forming alliances of the moment depending on how they can soundbyte the workers and drones into supporting them...
Hmmm, Animal Farm vs. Obamacomb. Long as incipient Orwell?
Edited on Sep 8, 2010 at 8:20amJun '10
Re: A Grown-up Election
In Hayekian terms, Obamacare is a classic abandonment of the Rule Of Law.
Obamacare creates a mandate/legislation to accomplish something without agreement of how to accomplish it. Where the rubber meets the road, congress 1) does not have sufficient local information, and 2) cannot get consensus on detailed plans, so they empower czars and committees to adjust “to the circumstances of the moment…balance one against the other the interests of various persons and groups. In the end, somebody’s view will have to decide whose interests are more important; and these views must become part of the law of the land, a new distinction of rank which the coercive apparatus of government imposes on the people.” Hayek
It is the appointed queens/czars/chair-wo-men of the Obamacare honeycomb that will “regulate” the actions and rules of the worker bees “on the full circumstances of the moment.” Their personal sense of justice will prevail, rather than general laws known in advance to which all are accountable. ”The more the state ‘plans,’ the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.”
Edited on Sep 8, 2010 at 8:16am