PrintFebruary 2, 2009
An Elephant Never Forgets
The past two weeks have featured at least three violations of President Obama's promise to limit the influence of lobbyists within the executive branch. Despite all this, Robert Gibbs maintains that "The policy we have is the strongest that any administration in the history of our country has had." Putting aside Gibb's obvious nonsense, you might be left wondering how an administration so unparalleled in "brain power" (to quote George Stephanopoulos) could act so unwisely. I believe the answer is simple, they think that people will forget. They are counting on the short memory of the American voter. Sound cynical? Maybe, but some of us are not so quick to forget. Some will remember. I will remember.
It is not the only thing I will remember either. I will remember Speaker Pelosi's idea of immediate stimulus being a decrease in human population, evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars she supported including in the stimulus for family planning services. I will remember all the other wasteful spending and pork that has no place in an immediate stimulus plan, such as the $200 million for sod on the National Mall, $44 million for a facelift to the exterior of the Department of Agriculture, and the $5.2 billion headed for the Community Development Block Grants, a chief financier of ACORN. I will remember and be thankful that as of this moment, no Republican has voted for the package and that a similar scenario is likely in the Senate.
I will not forget the reckless steps President Obama has taken with regard to the War on Terror. I will remember his executive orders to defang the war on terror by closing Gitmo and CIA Black Sites. And I will not forget his appointment of Leon Panetta to the CIA, a man who has no experience in the intelligence field and whose only qualification seems to be his opinion on what does and does not constitute torture.
I will also remember what the President thinks of me. I will remember what he said in San Francisco about rural voters when he believed his comments were being made in private. I will remember being lectured about the importance of understanding Jeremiah Wright's comments in context and Obama's twenty year relationship with a racist that no white man could ever have and retain public office.
And while it's now considered an anachronism to be aware of the threat of radical Islam, I will remember that it still exists. I will remember 9/11. I will remember the leadership of former President Bush and his justified and necessary invasion of Iraq. I will remember how the far left treated our former president and their mindless comparisons of him to fascist dictators. I will remember what they would like me to forget.
If the GOP wants to recover, it will need to remember as well. It must explain why the stimulus will result in failure and bloated government. The GOP must understand that it is a broad tent and despite what the Peggy Noonans and the Georgetown cocktail party crowd say, the full strength of the conservative spectrum will be required to face the juggernaut the Democrats have created. They must remember the folly of putting forward candidates that are pro-amnesty, pro-bailout, and anti-free market. They must realize that they still live in a center-right nation, a nation that still largely sees the government as the problem and not the answer.
Republicans must remember and learn from a key mistake of the Bush administration. Too often Bush was content with letting history be his final judge. Ultimately, this is the case with many presidents, but it was not wise to merely leave it at that when full throated and compelling policy defense could and should have been made to the American people. Letting the opposition define him is what led to his abysmal approval rating. If you let someone lie long and loudly and long enough without opposition, people will regard it as reality.
Republicans must remember to do what they can to control and shape the perception of what is happening. If President Obama and his cohorts continue with their reckless appointments, dangerous executive orders and out of control spending Republicans may just remember who they are and what they stand for. I know I do.
Matthias Reynolds blogs at AmericaAdNauseam.blogspot.com and can by reached at Matthiasreynolds@verizon.net.
Matthias Reynolds blogs at AmericaAdNauseam.blogspot.com and can by reached at Matthiasreynolds@verizon.net.
