Republican Majority

I received a phone call from this very nice man, stating he was from the Republican Majority Campaign, so I knew he wanted to do a survey, and I assumed ask for money.  I don’t think I said what he wanted me to say.  More after the jump…

He asked me if I identified myself as a Republican, Democrat, or Independent.  I told him that I was honestly leaning towards Independent, but I was still a registered Republican.  He said that was good enough.

He had two questions for me.

The first was a choice of what was most important for Republicans to be focusing on.  He gave me a list that I don’t fully remember, but it had the hot topics – budget, healthcare, terrorism, and abortion.  I told him that for me, budget was probably the most important.  He said that was a very popular answer.

The second question, he said, was open-ended.  He asked me what Republicans need to be doing as a party.  I asked him how much time he had, because I could list a lot of things.  He said try to keep it around ten words.  Yeah, that’s kind of difficult to me.  So, on the spot, I came up with two things:

1. Don’t distance themselves from the Tea Party.
2. Put their money where their mouth is.

I know it was sixteen words, but that’s pretty good for a talker like me.  I’ll hit more on both points later.

After he got that put in his computer, he launched into the prepared part of his phone call, going on about how imperative it is that Republicans maintain control of the House and take back the Senate because Obama and the Democrat’s spending is out of control.  Then came the pitch.  He asked if he could send me a packet in the mail, so I could stand with them and donate some money.

I won’t say that I went off on him, but I definitely had a moment.

I told him that I wouldn’t be donating to them because of how dissatisfied with Republicans I currently am.  I told him that, yes, Democrats were wrecking the country, but Republicans didn’t exactly do much better when they ran the show during the Bush years.  I told him that the whole reason I’m leaning towards being an Independent is Republicans saying one thing to get elected, and then doing nothing when they get in office besides grandstanding.  I told him that I may be inclined to donate to a specific candidate’s campaign, but not to the Republicans overall.

I told him that I meant no disrespect to him, and he was very courteous and said there was none taken.  I couldn’t quite tell, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this wasn’t the first time he’d heard that point of view.

The whole reason I’m posting is because, well, I haven’t had a good political rant in a while.

No, seriously.  Am I not right?  I’ve been pretty stirred up about this lately. 

I’m sure that ideological, MSNBC-watching Democrats love when a registered Republican talks this way, but that’s not the point.  They have no ideas to fix what ails our country.  They have nothing to offer but tired retreads of the same arguments – “war on women”, “equality”, “the 1%”, and the classic “it’s Bush’s fault”.  They’ve got nothing new, no solutions.  And this incessant spin that Republicans are only fired up because we have a black president is about as asinine as it gets.  He’s not really even black.  Anyways, that’s not the point of this piece.

The point, actually, is Republicans as a brand have a lot of work to do to differentiate themselves from the Democrats.  I honestly think that Republicans in general are not the problem.  The problem is the Washington types that put their own interests ahead of those of their constituents.  This is a problem on both sides, but it’s particularly frustrating when the side that says that they promote small government and fiscal responsibility only spouts those talking points when they are campaigning or are rolled out to the pointless cable news outlets (yes, I think even FOX News is annoying).  Has anyone seen the Netflix series, “House of Cards”?  I have a love/hate relationship with that show.  It’s pretty demeaning of conservatives, but at the same time, it shows the seedy underbelly of Washington and the lengths that power-hungry politicians will go to go move up the food chain.  Lie, cheat, and steal is just the foreword to their playbook, and they don’t bat an eye at selling their souls in the process.  The sad thing is, I don’t think that the concepts in that show are entirely off-base.  There are real world examples of deplorable politicians like these – and they probably exist on both sides.  Some Republicans have a holier than thou attitude, but when they don’t legislate in a manner that reflects their stump speeches, they need to be held to account. 

Honestly, I’m sick and tired of the political grandstanding.  I’m sick of seeing John Boehner and Mitch McConnell respond to everything the president says with some press conference or speech on the floor.  I’m sick of hearing the political retorts, the talking points, and the meaningless drivel.  It’s time for action.  I realize that action can’t really happen with things the way they are, so that’s why the 2014 election is imperative.  The guy that called me asking for money is right, the Democrats are wrecking this country.  But I’m not willing to cede control of this country to the East Coast, establishment Republicans.  We need drastic measures here.

I’m not going to sit here and bloviate about how we need term limits, we need to cut spending to bare bones levels, we need to get back to the gold standard, etc.  I’m going to say that we need to pull our heads out of our sphincters and get real here.  See, this is the point where a typical liberal would say that I need to point out how the media is controlled by a vast left-wing conspiracy.  I don’t need to point it out.  It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?  As much of a conspiracy theorist that I think he is, Glenn Beck is kind of right – we need to defund the GOP.  I think there are some great Republicans that are in office or are running for it, but I think that the party as a whole is in serious need of restructuring.   And I also think that groups like Republican Majority are part of the problem.  Just because a person is a Republican doesn’t mean that they should be elected.  For instance, Charlie Crist was a Republican at one point.  Thank goodness the people of Florida saw through the façade and elected Marco Rubio in his stead.  I don’t agree 100% with Rubio, but he was the better alternative.  Also, these crusty politicians who have been in Washington for decades need sent home.  I’m a huge proponent of term limits.  You expect Democrats to get power hungry, vying for chairmanships, and generally wanting to grasp onto what little relevance they have in their dysfunctional little political family.  We should expect better from Republicans.  I’ll call them out.  Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and even my senator, Pat Roberts, need to retire.  They have been entrenched in this mess for too long.  I respect their service to this country, but their time as a public servant should come to an end.  And honestly, why haven’t they retired?  They’re way up there in age and they’ve clearly got money, so why wouldn’t they want to spend the rest of their years relaxing away from the Washington drama?  Power.  Political capital.  The power of the incumbency is hard to break.  They know this.  And they exploit it.  It’s not just the four I called out.  Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe, and others have been there too long as well.  Term limits would go a great distance in solving this problem.  Look at me, bloviating on a topic I said I wouldn’t.  I’m kind of running off at the mouth, er, keyboard here.

Honestly, I started typing this blog well before Eric Cantor was defeated in his primary.  I honestly don’t know anything about his opponent, but as much as I respect Cantor, he’d become Boehner’s mouthpiece of late, so I’m not going to cry in my beer seeing him fall from power.  And if you listen to the hacks over at MSNBC posing as “journalists”, you’d think that blood was flowing in the streets.  They are relishing the idea of a Republican “civil war”, because it covers up the fact that they have no ideas, no solutions, and no direction.  Plus, the administration – and the Democrat Party, by association – is mired in corruption that even MSNBC can’t successfully spin.  So much like Bowe Bergdahl, this “civil war” is just another shiny object that the administration can use to distract their lapdogs in the media.  Anyone remember that there is a VA scandal?  Exactly.

For all the people who rant and rail against how government officials are paid off by lobbyists, I really don’t understand your argument.  You’d rather rail against the NRA, Exxon-Mobil, or Monsanto than rail against the politicians who cave to their whims?  The reality is that money does buy elections, but it shouldn’t be that way.  Another harsh reality is that the media (or whoever is paying them off) also sways elections.  Again, it shouldn’t be that way.  If people would use what God put between their ears and actually pay attention, then we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re currently in.  You are most likely not going to find a perfect candidate, but get educated about each side.  If people had put 10% of the mental effort that the extend to their NCAA bracket(s) towards picking their political leaders, we’d much likely be in a much better place today. 

One more thing, before I post this.  I identify myself as a conservative first, Republican second.  There are attributes of the Libertarian point of view that I would align myself with, but as a whole, I’m not ready to endorse Libertarian thinking.  I find the Libertarian Party quite hypocritical on one of their staple issues – legalizing marijuana. For a party that likes to rail against big government, they all but endorse another bureaucracy to oversee legalizing pot.  They can say that they just want it decriminalized, but that seems like a pipe dream to me.  Plus, you can’t tell me that pot isn’t a gateway drug.  Sure, I’ve never been into drugs, but it seems like everyone I talk to that has says that it just gets boring after a while, and coke, heroin, and meth start looking pretty good.  So, I’m willing to work with the Libertarians on minimizing government if they’d just get off this infernal infatuation with pot for a while.  We have a lot of common ground, but they are almost unwilling to negotiate unless they get pot legalized.  That’s just my perspective.  I’m not a proponent of a third party.  Yet.  But I will be looking more into the Constitution Party. 

I realize that this became a ramble.  I apologize.  Maybe next time I’ll be able to have a coherent thought.  Regardless, we’re in a bad place as a country.  I’ve been saying for a while that we are Rome.  Immorality has been pushed down our throats (gay marriage, anyone?), corruption is rampant in our government (particularly in the White House and Senate), and government overreach is reaching dangerous levels (Bundy Ranch, anyone?).  However, I’m not giving up.  We as a nation have survived independence, a fierce civil war, the Great Depression, two world wars, the Cold War, and Jimmy Carter.  We can survive President Obama and his cronies.  It may take a long time to repair the damage, but we can still be that shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan talked about.  We may be in for a long road, but it’s one I’m willing to travel, should God grant me the strength to do so.