With the departure of Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) from the ranks of the GOP there is now a chance for some clarity in America’s political debate. Democrats are officially waxing lyrical in their new-found love for Specter while initial GOP comment runs from “good riddance” to “we’re screwed”. The “good riddance” crowd have long been irked by the way Specter routinely undercuts GOP conservatism, always at the worst possible moment. The “we’re screwed” group feels that unless the GOP can appeal to the Arlen Specter’s of America, we haven’t a chance of winning. For myself, I’m generally in the “good riddance” camp, but not out of some latent frustration with Specter. I’m glad he’s gone because he is one of those who keeps the GOP from expanding its base.
Huh? Yes, expanding its base. You see, what Specter has done is leave the GOP because in his cowardly and unprincipled vote in favor of Obama’s spendulus, he revealed himself – once and for all – as a creature of the powerful, rather than a tribune of the people. The regular folks of the GOP base just weren’t going to have it anymore.
Liberals are crowing that Specter was forced out because of conservative Christians being bigots – and some conservatives are following this line. But Specter was going to be crushed in the GOP primary not because Christian conservatives were upset over his social liberalism, but because when the chips were down, Specter opted to help the powerful rather than stand for the people. It is political barnacles like Specter who allow the Democrats to paint the GOP as fundamentally no different from the Democrats and, also, keep politics down in the sewer, thus turning off millions of potential voters who just don’t see how their vote can make a difference. After all, what really is the difference between Arlen Specter and Ted Kennedy? Specter out means we can start having a GOP which stands firmly for principle – a party which no longer compromises core beliefs just to retain a seat or two.
The powerful, it must be kept in mind, can’t stand regular folks. They don’t mind poor people – such people can be used as political pawns and, also, allow powerful people to use tax dollars to assuage their guilt for being so rich while some are so poor. But us folks who are just work-a-day Americans – we’re just an annoyance. We take our religion seriously. We really believe that family is important. We really love America. We really honor the troops. We really insist upon secure borders. We really want our enemies defeated. We really don’t care what people in France and Germany say about us. We laugh at the foibles of the rich. We demand that the poor pull their weight. It was a rather cynical move by McCain to pick Sarah Palin – he wanted a VP who could wow the base. He got that, but as it turns out he also picked one of us…and that made the powerful go ballistic. What we need is more Palin, less Specter in the party. We need more tribunes of the people, less creatures of the powerful.
If the GOP wants to win, the way to do it is to be for the people against the powerful. Why were we even for a moment thinking that Specter was with us and worthy of our volunteers and our donations? What in heck were we thinking? We are the party of the people – the average American, outside the beltway and in direct and vigorous opposition to the mentality of government-knows-best. What is Arlen Specter but a cheerleader for what we consider all that is wrong with American government? Hey, more power to him – he’s got what he’s got and he’s free to do as he wishes. But we’re fools if we want to keep any particular person in office merely because they have an R after their name. We want people who will fight and fight and fight – never giving in for a moment to the various political expediencies which always mean that the well-connected get the gold mine, and we get the shaft.
Suppose we kept Specter and he wound up the 51st GOP Senator in 2011. What good would that do us? Do you think he wouldn’t betray us in a moment in order to curry favor with his fellow power elites in DC? I’d rather have 30 Senators I can rely on than 60 Senators who are in it for themselves (of course, I’d prefer 60 I can rely on…and we’ll get that, if we do this right). Our best bet is to shed anyone in the GOP who feels that people in DC know what is best – no rancor towards them; we just have a different worldview. This isn’t really a conservative/liberal thing – though, of course, conservatives do tend to be more understanding of the dangers of government power. This is an American thing – those Tea Party protesters were probably in their majority conservative, but none of those rallies were conservative. They were American, to the core – and that is what the GOP will have to be, if we want to win.
Who runs America? Right now it is collection of liberals in government and their clients in business, unions, education and other special interests. Whatever they might say about helping the people, they are really all about helping themselves. They are powerful – they control not just the government but, largely, the courts, the media, the institutions of higher education and all of those “commanding heights” of our society which allow them to drumbeat their worldview into the public mind. They are running this – and they are running us. It is time we started running them – running them out of town, running them to ground…running them ragged.
With eyes clear, hearts firm and no longer encumbered by political deadweight like Specter, it is now our chance to firmly capture the GOP and then go on to win the power we need to remake America in to what the Founder’s intended – a democratic republic of strong, independent people.
Blogs For Victory 