PrintAugust 12, 2010
How A GOP November Victory Could Bring Its Death
If the GOP gains control of one or both Houses of Congress in the November midterm elections, and then does not make good on its promises to reverse and counter the Democrats' socialist agenda, we could hear the death knell that signals the end of the Grand Old Party.
The wisdom of the conventional response to conservatives who threaten, out of frustration, to align with a third party is well-established by tradition and history. Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party brought the nation President Woodrow Wilson, and Ross Perot's entry into the 1992 race elected Bill Clinton. Both were movements based on personality-in-the-moment. TR didn't like Taft, and Perot had a grudge against Bush 41. In the 2000 election, Perot only begrudgingly endorsed George W. Bush, laying aside his animosity against the family name.
On those two occasions, when a third party played the spoiler, personality-in-the-moment was the primary driver. National circumstances and the mood of the voters are much different today.
Still feeling betrayed by the GOP's failure to live up to its promises going back to soon after the Contract with America, conservative voters are preparing to march to the polls in decisive numbers, but not with wild-eyed enthusiasm for the GOP. As they vote to oust the current Democrat Congress, under their breath, they'll be muttering the warning, "This is your last chance, Republicans."
If they invest the GOP with power again only to be betrayed again, conservative voters will not passively accept the fate of having no political party in which to believe. And because their angst over the future of the country that their children and grandchildren will inherit runs deep, they won't shrug off another betrayal as merely representing politics as usual. Not this time, for these are unusual and troubling times, and settling for politics as usual will bring intolerable consequences.
Meanwhile, there is no Summer of Recovery. The federal government continues to grow in size and influence. And the most audacious misnomer of the century to date is "bailout," for our sinking ship of state isn't being emptied of any water at all. Instead, Congress continues to shoot large-caliber holes into the bottom of the boat with every subsequent "bailout," as the water level in the engine room rises ever higher.
But most readers of the American Thinker already know all that and saw it all coming. Our politically naïve friends and relatives drank the hope and change Kool-Aid, and now, along with us, they are suffering the consequences, with worse ahead. Some will admit they were conned. Many will not. But nearly all have a growing concern for the future of their country.
If the GOP wins big in November, and then retreats into a "moderate" stance -- pledging to work across the aisle with Democrats to advance the country; compromising in order to tweak some of the fundamental transformation that's been dealt to us during the last eighteen months; playing nice with the radical left, who've added a quarter of a million new federal workers during the Obama regime -- if the GOP is DOA with regard to fulfilling its stated and implied promises to turn around the unsustainable course the nation is on, then a third party will emerge. It will draw support from both mainline parties, but it will bleed deepest into the GOP.
Today, the Tea Party isn't configured as a political party. It's a hydra-headed grassroots movement -- one unimaginable before the days of the internet and cable news. It's like a big, gangly, uncoordinated kid. Its leadership is local and diverse. Liberals like to say Dick Armey or others are behind it all. That's nuts.
Its strength is gained, in part, because it lacks a single face, or even a cadre of faces. It has millions of faces. It's not a personality-in-the-moment, like TR or Perot; it's a purpose-in-a-movement. And the politicians of both parties fear (and often loathe) it because they can't control it. It aims to influence the election of fiscally conservative politicians who will stop the siphoning off of the nation's wealth by the current regime and reverse the damage done to America's ability to create wealth in the future.
If the GOP wins in November and betrays the voters again, then the gangly teenager will morph into an adult, into a political party, because there won't be any other choice left.
Should Republicans be in a celebratory mood on the evening of November 2, they will do well to temper their joy with this sobering thought: Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, and we're done with you.
