In the 1980s the United States Department of Transportation decided that somewhere in the Constitution they had the power to use tax payer dollars to fund PSAs featuring two crash test dummies, Vince and Larry, with the purpose of convincing American to buckle up while in their cars. The campaigns slogan was, “You can learn a lot from a Dummy.” Well, it is true, you can learn a lot from a Dummy be they plastic or a member of Congress.
In the 1980s the United States Department of Transportation decided that somewhere in the Constitution they had the power to use tax payer dollars to fund PSAs featuring two crash test dummies, Vince and Larry, with the purpose of convincing American to buckle up while in their cars. The campaigns slogan was, “You can learn a lot from a Dummy.” Well, it is true, you can learn a lot from a Dummy be they plastic or a member of Congress.
Exhibit A is Maxine Waters, moonbat extraordinaire, who has rarely seen a gross and unconstitutional overreach of federal power she did not like. Ms. Waters is frustrated. She is frustrated because her party, the Democratic Party, is technically in power in Washington. They control both houses of Congress, the White House and have just replaced one left wing loon with another left wing loon on the Supreme Court. All is seemingly right, erI mean left, with the world.
Well, except for one teensy weensy little problem.
While the Democrats have the numbers based on party affiliation, actually getting those numbers to march in goose-stepping lockstep with the Party’s left wing agenda has proven a little more difficult. There are plenty of D’s running around Washington but some of those D’s are not the sort of D’s that are helpful to the cause of Waters and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. These D's are not quite as left wing, anti-liberty and anti-American as those that are sitting on high and smiling that all is good.
See, what happened over the past few years is that the Democrats made some devil’s bargains to gain power. And by “power” I mean the ability to claim that they are the majority party in Congress. In order to gain that status they had to defeat a lot of Republicans in very conservative districts around the country. In order to do that they had to run candidates that were either as conservative or even more conservative than those Republicans that they needed to defeat.
Of course it is important to point out that what passes for a “conservative” Republican these days is someone sitting squarely on the fence as a moderate voting for increased government when they think they can get something out of it or buy votes for their own reelection. So it was not too hard for the Democrats to find people to the right of these Republicans, or at least who could appear to the right of these Republicans, to run against them. They pitched a big tent and made all sorts of promises to these so-called “conservative” Democrats (aka Blue Dogs) such as swearing that the party would never ever force them to vote against the principles they ran on. They also probably swore up and down that they really did have a bridge in Brooklyn and some oceanfront property in North Dakota to sell them too.
Of course, as we saw with Cap (and Tax) and Trade this was problematic for the Democrat leadership that is on the left somewhere between Mussolini and Stalin. Oh, I know how much it grates at the modern socialist “progressives” to compare them to the socialist “progressives” of the past which is exactly why I do it. They have not changed no matter how much they whine that they have. Anyway, the Democrats in the House scrambled feverishly to round up enough votes to squeak it through and used a couple Republicans to push it over the top. Arms were twisted and even broken to get Democrats that did not want to vote for the legislation to vote for it. Now with Obamacare we are seeing the same scenario playing out again as the legislation stalls in the House.
Maxine Waters lamented that the chickens were now coming home to roost for the Democratic Party, a Party that accepted these disloyal representatives into their fold for the sake of power. And you know what? She is right. This is what happens when you pitch a big tent and let anyone and everyone in simply to bolster your numbers. You might gain the numbers you need to be in control technically, but if a big enough portion of your membership does not go along with the leaders and are constantly striking out on their own then that power can be quickly neutered.
The Republican Party could learn a lot from all this and this Dummyocrat who had the little 40 watt bulb in her head spark to life. For years the GOP has struggled to try and put up its own big tent mostly to keep the north east, and very liberal, “Republicans” happy. These are the men and women that are by no stretch of the imagination conservative but are not quite liberal enough to be Democrats although they like a lot of what the Democrats propose. They will gladly vote for a far left liberal if the Republican Party does not stroke their egos and nominate a so-called moderate like themselves. They love people like John McCain and assorted other RINOs and have enough power within the party to make sure that the party gets a Reagan to lead it about as often as a hippie changes his underwear. And in case you have not been around a hippie, then the answer to that riddle is not very often. Remember, McCain was dead in the water until he went into New Hampshire where these so-called Republicans resuscitated his chances.
Year after year the Republican Party has faced the same struggles as the Democrats do right now with the Blue Dogs. The Republicans have made far too many deals with the devil by allowing the likes of Olympia Snowe and former Republican, but never really a Republican, Arlen Specter to hang around and gum up the works.
So let the words of Maxine Waters find the ears of the Republican Party. And let us hope they see the lesson she is trying to teach them.
J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts http://www.cafepress.com/rightthings. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at http://www.libertyreborn.com
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