"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." Samuel Adams

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Republican Awakening?

I'm afraid I overestimated Obama, that I gave him too much credit. I thought he would arrive in D.C. like Lenin from exile, and ram through his socialist programs as fast as possible, the devil with Republicans. Instead, he delayed, seeking to sucker the Republicans into booking passage on his Titanic. And what do you know: the GOP balked. We have the spectacle of Susan Collins--Susan Collins!--arguing that the "stimulus" package is too expensive. What kind of crazy world is this? What happened to hope and change? Have Republicans, even RINOs like Collins, found their soul? Or have voters realized that the loons like Obama, Nancy "Five-hundred-million-Americans" Pelosi and "Barney Freak" are selling them and their children down the river? Or perhaps reality has hit the love-struck suckers who voted for Lord Barack Obama? I guess the only thing we can count on is that as long as we're dealing with human beings, it's hard to predict anything.

5 comments:

Brian C. Caffrey said...

It just occurred to me that these limousine libs in NY and California might have realized that while they want to be popular and politically correct and caring, they don't want to live like people in the Third World. (I've been listening to Glenn Beck's hilarious comments on some environmentalist idiots, featured in the NY Times, who are trying to do without a refrigerator.)

Dave said...

Lord Obama wrote in his Washington Post op-ed piece of 2/5/09: "This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse." Catch the phrase "may not be able to reverse." Oh my! This reminds me of a vacuum cleaning salesman who says, "You must buy today or the price will triple." I give Obama credit: unlike his predecessor, he's willing to use the bully pulpit. Now let's see if it works.

Brian C. Caffrey said...

My take is that he's overreaching. He's turning into Chicken Little, or the boy who cried wolf. After all these "do-it-or-else" stimulus packages and bailouts, people are not going to buy this latest doom-and-gloom apocalyptic warning, especially now that they see all the pork that's in this bill.

Bill said...

Heck, even John McCain is complaining about the provisions of the porkulus bill. I don't know if Republicans have been born again as fiscal conservatives or if they just sense that Obama and the democrat sideshow in Congress are overreaching and are thus vulnerable. Either way, it comes to the same thing: Republicans talking - and acting! - like Republicans should.

A couple of things I draw from this:
The media is playing up the senate bill as a "compromise" reflecting bipartisan input. That's false. As I read the fine print, it appears that just three Republicans-the usual suspects, in fact- seem to be party to this "bipartisan" breakthrough. The narrative Obama is trying to foist off on everyone is that the bill has bipartisan support. Republicans shouldn't let him get away with it. It's pure fantasyland socialism and will not address the nation's need for immediate and permanent tax restructuring - which is the solution to the problem. It's a quick and obvious fix that the democrats won't touch because they know it'll work.
Another lesson: You talk here about a Republican awakening. In fact, what we're seeing is that the American people are waking up. They're rejecting socialism (according to the polls).
Just think, then, what might have happened if the republicans had nominated someone who could have articulated not just a conservative philosophy, but also articulated the fraudulent nature of left wing ideology. We might very well not be talking about a Ppresident Obama right now.
The Republicans need to hammer, hammer, hammer away at this thing. Even after it passes - and it will, of course, become the law of the land - they need to keep this monstrosity in front of the American people; they ought to do something like William Proxmire used to do: every week, highlight another obscene excess of this bill. And in 2010, they ought to organize around a new "contract with America"-style national platform to retake control of the legislature. Seems far-fetched, sure. But look at 1994; that was a true revolution - alas, a revolution betrayed. For 2010 and beyond, we need better people, people of higher character and integrity, people who will be true to the principles their constituents elected them to follow.

Brian C. Caffrey said...

Well, Bill, perhaps I hoped for too much. My own dear Senator Specter is one of the cabal of RINOs who, while they think $900 billion a bit too much, can gladly live with $800 billion. Ah, the cancerous "Bob Michel" Republicans. They are complicit with the socialists; in fact, they are socialists. I hope you're right about the American people as a whole.