PrintJanuary 1, 2010
Mr. Smith, You're Needed in Washington
We no longer seem to be living in a constitutional republic. How could we be when the votes of our public officials are easily bought off with bribes, threats, and subversion of our Constitution? The Christmas fiasco of the Senate vote-buying ordeal to pass the health care bill is a perfect illustration of how Congress is out of control and no longer represents the will of the people. According to a CNN/ORC survey, the overwhelming majority of Americans are opposed to the Senate version of Obamacare, a bill that will nationalize one-sixth of the U.S. economy and grant unprecedented power to the federal government over the life of every American. Months of public outcry at town hall meetings since the summer, a one-million-man taxpayer march on Washington, D.C., thousands of local protests and rallies in every city and town across America, massive petitions, and thousands of calls and faxes have barely made an impression on the sixty senators who control the destiny of our country.
This ill-fated congressional makeup is the outcome of the 2008 election, in which hostile feelings against the GOP played out at the polls. As polling data shows, this hostile attitude keeps the GOP in low voter esteem even though all forty Republicans have lined up in opposition to the Senate health care bill. As public displeasure with the Obama administration and Democrats mounts, the GOP public approval has remained at a constant low of 28%. A Rasmussen survey shows that 73% of Republican voters believe their leaders in Washington are out of touch with the party base, and a hypothetical Tea Party would beat the GOP if general elections were held today.
The majority of Americans are honest, hardworking, conservative-leaning folks who want to believe in James Stewart's character in Frank Capra's film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Jefferson Smith, the wide-eyed, idealistic new senator launches an extensive filibuster on the Senate floor abounding with the truths and vision of our Founding Fathers. Smith ultimately triumphs over the thuggery and lies of the corrupt machine politicians ruling Washington, D.C. This scenario is depressingly similar to today's political scene in our capital, and although patriotic Americans are pessimistic, they yearn to see numerous Mr. Smiths going to Washington to reclaim the basic foundational principles of America. But where will the anticipated Mr. Smiths come from?
In answer to this question, Florida's Republican congressional candidate in the 22nd District, Lt. Col. Allen West, advises us in his January Washingtoons column to place principle over party. He writes: "The GOP has to win back 40 seats in order to remove the gavel from the hands of Nancy Pelosi." We need to win an overwhelming landslide to surmount the devious liberal ploys the Democrats will utilize, cheating and lying their way to victory. Predictably, they will be employing ACORN and Organizing for America to register twelve to fifteen million potential new voters once the amnesty bill is passed as Rahm Emmanuel sits squarely in control of the 2010 census.
In order to win a landslide, we need bold leadership and a unifying conservative message, which LTC West best exemplifies today. The Reaganesque message and the type of leadership that bring hope and pride in our country's future is the model for the GOP to embrace as we scour the landscape to find and groom our prospective Mr. Smiths.
LTC West forecasts a revolution brewing in America: the Tea Party movement. These American patriots, young and old, Republican, Democrat, conservative, Libertarian, former Obama and Hillary supporters, and reformed grassroots activists are fighting daily to take our country back. They are the unknown soldiers, ridiculed among the pissant state-run media, organizing the rallies and protests, faxing, emailing, calling and petitioning their representatives on a daily basis, up until Christmas Eve and beyond to stop the destruction of our free Republic and the enslavement of all Americans to an escalating government goliath.
The Tea Party movement is real, and out of this cauldron of dissent and true patriotism will emerge the future leaders of America. The movement is now organizing and meeting in order to select and vet candidates for township, city council, school board, state assembly, state senate, and especially Congress. In order for our public elected officials to be directly accountable to the people, a mass mobilization in support of the right candidates is on the horizon. This grassroots bulwark will eliminate these new candidates' need to be indebted to special moneyed interests and the old-school political machines.
A new Reagan revolution is brewing. It is a revolution within the ranks of the GOP, as the movement sweeps in to take control of the Republican Party. The days of the top-down old guard are over. This is a bottom-up movement of the grassroots, or what Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) prefers to call the angry mobs "who commandeer the town-hall meetings." It is no longer acceptable for New York GOP bosses to reject principled Conservative Doug Hoffman and instead select a tax-and-spend Republican like Dede Scozzafava for NY's 23rd Congressional District special election. Neither is it allowable for the National Republican Senatorial Committee to dismiss Marco Rubio, the new Republican star running to take back our country in favor of Obama sycophant Governor Charlie Crist for the Florida Senate race. The new Republican rising stars will win. Borrowing the words of Thomas Paine for advice to the GOP: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."
Phil Orenstein is a Republican County Committeeman from Queens, N.Y. and a manufacturing systems manager at Orics Industries Inc., NY. He blogs at Democracy-Project.com.
