Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Rout of the Left

What began as a substantial political defeat in 2010 of President Obama’s so-called progressive program, including a rebuke by the voters of Obamacare legislation perpetrated by the duo of Pelosi and Reid in the Congress, is becoming a rout of the whole attempt to revive a left program in American politics.

President Obama does not need to read tea leaves to know what is happening, and is continuing to adapt at least some of his economic program to try to remain competitive for 2012. The far left, of course, will have none of this, and remains stubborn in its interpretation of the 2008 elections as a mandate for radical change in a neo-Marxian and European model.

It turns out that Speaker John Boehner is a fine political chess player who is transforming the popular will into direct (and, so far, successful) confrontations with the White House. Mr. Boehner has developed a near-perfect pitch in combining substance and public relations, and has put the Obama-Pelosi-Reid cabal decidedly on the defensive. In fact, by avoiding the government shutdown and winning $38 billion in spending cuts, the whole debate has been transformed in much the same manner that President Reagan changed the economic debate in the 1980’s.

Just as the far left is now attacking their own for this state of affairs, so, too, is the far right beginning to attack Speaker Boehner and his congressional colleagues as “sell outs.” If Mr. Boehner and congressional Republicans had failed to follow through on 2010 with a genuine beginning to lower spending, smaller government and no new taxes, I would have agreed. In fact, combined with the dramatic political/economic revolution begun by outstanding Republican governors in New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, the congressional leadership has bit the bullet and firmly begun the job that can only be finished by the election of 2012, and GOP victories in the U.S. and for the White House.

As my readers know, I have supported the Tea Party emergence in U. S. politics, and refused to join in the conventional criticism of them. I have supported Sarah Palin in her efforts to become a national figure (though not necessarily as the 2012 presidential candidate), and given her due for political acumen. I have also not attacked Michele Bachmann, as have so many on both the left and in the GOP, nor pooh-poohed her efforts to become a national figure. But I draw the line if they and other self-styled spokespersons attack Speaker Boehner as a “sell-out.” In my opinion, he is just the opposite, and he should be receiving the praise of conservatives for his leadership so far, a leadership which is setting up an historic conservative victory in 2012.

It’s simply a fact that conservatives cannot insist on full transformational change in the federal government until they win the White House, and control both houses of Congress. Nevertheless, Republican governors, legislatures and the GOP house leadership in Washington, DC have fulfilled the voters wishes, clearly stated in 2010, and begun that transformation of American politics.

Politics is not an art and business which functions in pure forms. The voters do not ever act unanimously. Public opinion is always divided. The greatest politicians understand how to navigate through the complexity of this. They have to be chess players. The far left and the far right want to play checkers. for them it’s double jumps, wipe outs, and all or nothing. Conservatives should thank their stars that Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor, Mr. Ryan, and Governors Christie, McDonnell, Daniels, Walker, and Kasich are their leaders. Their attention now should be to finding the right person to nominate for president, and to win back the all-important executive branch of government.

Self-promotional and heavy-handed back-biting does not befit a party seeking to transform the government.

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