Cowards Among Us

Much is made these days of the O-man and his administrations leading the country down the path to ruin.

Certainly, the citizens of the country are expressing their displeasure, as his approval ratings and those of Congress continue to plummet.

And, of course, the Republicans scream long and loud about the situation.

But unfortunately, their cries of despair are merely lip service.

They're much more concerned with staying in office than with standing on principle for any conservative cause.

And, of late, they've become amazingly transparent about that fact.

First it was Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who when facing his first serious challenge to reelection in decades, decided it more important to keep his job and easier to change parties than to fight it out and get reelected based on his values and principles.

Then, Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, became reliable aisle-crossers for the Obama agenda.

And now, the highly visible and vocal Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, who has been running for the Senate as a Republican, has found himself getting his ass whipped by a more conservative upstart, Marco Rubio.

Crist was the heavy favorite in the senate race early last year, and was even among the Republican names bandied about in the 2012 presidential race.

But the primary campaign quickly became a lost cause as the tea party movement embraced the more conservative Marco Rubio, and held up the governor's literal embrace of Obama last year as evidence that Crist was too liberal.

One recent poll showed him more than 20 percentage points behind Rubio in the August primary.

So, once again, rather than fight it out based on personal beliefs and principles, another Republican has turned tail and bailed out of the party, running as an independent, focusing instead on keeping his job.

The truth is that Specter, Crist, and a whole host of other Republicans in Congress are more concerned with keeping their power, privilege, and position, that principles have long fallen by the wayside.

Which is why it's apperently so damned easy for those same Republicans to compromise with the O-man's agenda as opposed to representing their conservative constituents.

They've forgotten that conservatives elected them to actually be conservative, that if they had wanted liberal representation, they would have voted Democrat.

They've forgotten there's supposed to be a clear difference between the parties.

Republican congressmen as a group need to grow some balls and stand up to the continued attacks on the Constitution, states rights, and personal liberties.

They need to continuously demonstrate a clear cut difference between themselves and their Democrat "opposition".

And they need to get back to considering the Dems as real opposition, rather than simply "friends and colleagues.

Because until they do, any token opposition the Republicans do mount is more for the cover of plausible deniability than for principle.

For inspiration, I suggest the Republicans look carefully at the behavior, strategies, and tactics of the Dems when they were a minority.

They did not cooperate, compromise. or cave on issues of importance.

They remained unified, consistent, and true to their principles, no matter how misguided.

They weren't afraid to fight, to get down and dirty for their cause.

And, they were effective.

The Republicans, knowing it usually takes only a few crossover votes, appear to have figured out how to play both sides of the aisle with little penalty.

Studies of voting records show a  group of consistent defectors, supported by a rotating group of occasional defectors.

Snowe, Collins, and Specter have so consistently defected on important issues that they can almost be counted as Democtrats, even if two of them haven't actually changed parties.

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon and others appear to defect on a regular rotating basis as needed, allowing them good political cover on the homefront while allowing them to be actively courted with favor while they are in Washington.

In turn, they get easy, consistent approvals for special earmarks, committee assignments, office choices, and the like.

In civilian business life, those are often the symtoms of bribery --- receiving things of value in exchange for specific behavior.

But those Congressional cowards who refuse to stand by the principles that got them elected have carefully exempted themselves from such prosecution, along with compliance with most other laws applicable to you and I.

A good friend has clearly and concisely articulated the problem: "They have been going along to get along for so long that for the most part they actually believe that is the optimum road and job description for holding office.


Boldly and clearly standing up with an opposing position, backed with logic, facts, and intelligent reasoning is the key quality needed in turning things around."

It's time for Americans to send these RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) a strong message: "If you feel it necessary to change parties, or sell out our principles, we will fire you for misrepresentation."

Since you have no principles important ebough to stand for, we will exercise ours.


“Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?” ---- Ronald Reagan


"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. " ---- Thomas Jefferson


PORK OF THE DAY:
$475,750 by Senate appropriator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) for research into long term environmental and economic impacts of the development of a coal liquefaction sector in China. WHich only adds to the National Debt, most of which we already owe to.... China.