After spending way too many hours of my life yesterday listening to the hysterical Negative Nellies of Conservative Talk Radio spew out their obsessive mandate madness, I’ve decided to toss my hard-earned two cents worth of wisdom into this debate.
Rush Limbaugh is excoriating the Republicans and the conservative media in general for not running with what he perceives as the glorious political mandate given to Republicans after their massive nationwide victories on Tuesday. And that mandate, according to the Rules of Rush, is simply Stop Obama: Stop Amnesty, Stop Obamacare, Stop the Progressive/Socialist agenda. Period!
Well, Mr. Limbaugh is correct, yet incorrect. Yes, the GOP has been given the Stop Obama mandate, BUT—yes, there is a BUT. The GOP has also been handed a second, contradictory mandate. And that one goes like this: Get on With Governing: Stop the Confrontations, Stop the Gridlock, Stop the Drama.
To deny that the electorate is sick and tired of the DC drama, to deny that Tuesday’s election had anything to do with good governance is sheer fanatical obtuseness. For gosh sakes, how obvious can it be that the Republicans have been placed in the driver’s seat by the American people to lay the groundwork for good governance—to move the economy forward, to ease tax burdens, to submit a balanced budget, to secure our borders, and to serve as a counterweight to the unconstitutional antics of Barack Obama. And yes, good governance also includes putting a stop to amnesty and Obamacare.
The worst approach Republicans could take in January is to come roaring out of the senatorial gate with an aggressive in-his-face confrontational agenda. Charles Krauthammer is correct—the GOP needs to be smart and disciplined. They need to put forth their vision for America and they do that by consistently pushing legislative bills that have broad American appeal, then sit back and let the Progressive shill in the White House veto himself into utter irrelevance. Any and all confrontation must be initiated by Mister Left-wing. Obama must be the sucker caught in the glaring spotlight of obstruction and ideological fanaticism, NOT the Republicans.
I just stumbled across this blog today and I think what you’ve done here is awesome. As a bi-sexual conservative libertarian type, I definitely understand the feeling of being a minority within a minority!
I agree with you about the tendency toward histrionics. Conservatives are definitely not as good as liberals when it comes to smooth-talking, feel-good, sort of speech. We’re generally a more abrupt, blunt speaking type of people. It’s a personality difference, and unfortunately we are also more likely to overreact initially, lash out verbally with pejoratives that people consider radical, misspeak in general, and create great fodder for the foot-in-mouth night-time comedy reels. Hopefully, our fellow conservative types can manage to keep their heads, take a breather, and plan carefully what they say before reacting to Obama and his new dictate on immigration.
Yep, the lack of effective leadership has been a major stumbling block–there’s no real game plan and no one to articulate a vision for the future. The Republican party doesn’t seem to know what it’s up against. And all conservatives seem to take for granted that the media bias is just something they have to live with. Hardly. If the positions were reversed, the Left would be orchestrating one offensive after another to take back the media. We simply bitch about it, endlessly.