Life Imitates Charlie Brown
We’ve all seen the Charlie Brown and Lucy cartoons. Lucy always tries to convince Charlie Brown to kick the football promising she won’t yank the ball away. Inevitably, Charlie Brown agrees. He gets a running start, goes into his kicking motion only to have Lucy snatch the ball away and Charlie goes flying flat on his back. Charlie Brown is the loveable, ignorant dupe who gets suckered every time by the mean, dishonest, deceitful Lucy who loves inflicting harm on others -- making her borderline evil. In politics, life imitates cartoons.
This week, Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker of the House, played the part of Charlie Brown while the Democrats, specifically, Nancy Pelosi played the part of Lucy. Back in January, McCarthy was horse trading for votes to become the next speaker. He was reluctant to agree to the House rule that any congressman could call a vote to oust him. McCarthy talked to Pelosi, who told him to agree to the rule telling him “I’ll always back you up.” What a sucker. Just like Charlie Brown is always hoodwinked by the dishonest Lucy, McCarthy was duped by the dishonest, deceitful Pelosi. She had no intentions of having his back, especially if pulling her support could help her Dems or harm the Repubs.
In an historic moment in U.S. political history, Speaker McCarthy was voted out when Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called for a vote to do so. Guess who didn’t support McCarthy when he needed the support that was promised him? That’s correct, Pelosi and every single Dem, along with eight Republicans, voted to toss McCarthy. I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other for McCarthy. However, this entire “vote out the speaker” shows the absolute differences between Repubs and Dems. How so?
Consider the Dems. When told, they goose-step in unison, no deviation allowed whatsoever. They will lie, cheat and steal (In this case they only needed to lie.) to achieve their goal -- which is total, 100% control over you, and the country. And they will use any means to achieve that goal, hence the term “the end justifies the means.” For the speaker vote, Hakeem Jeffries, the Dem’s minority leader, commanded how they would vote, and they all obeyed. Not one Dem, not even Pelosi who promised to support McCarthy, dared to disobey their overlord(s). Think about this -- Dems don’t deviate, ever, on anything. Every single Dem obeys the command to support abortions up to the moment of birth. Every Dem repeats the narrative that climate change is real, it’s an existential threat to civilization, and mankind’s only recourse is higher taxes, more government control, and higher fuel costs. Every Dem spouts the insanity that a man becomes a woman by proclaiming to be one, and we must believe his delusions. Dems tell us they’re tolerant of everyone; and they are, so long as you agree with their nonsense. If any Dem dares to disagree or to think independently, they’re slapped down or ousted from the party -- check with Tulsi Gabbard (from Hawaii) or Mesha Mainor (from Atlanta), both former Dems, for proof.
Next consider the Republicans; they want us to believe they’re conservatives and tell us they’re against big government, make promises to “drain the Swamp,” are fiscally responsible with our tax dollars, and on and on with their conservative talking points. Republicans cannot agree on anything involving core conservative principles. They promise but never deliver, then tell us to wait for the next election, but we must continue voting for them if we ever want the conservatism they avoid at every turn. Sadly, conservative voters are all Charlie Browns and are endlessly being duped by politicians claiming to be conservatives. Republicans do not know how to win. They control the House yet refuse to use the “power of the purse” to advance their agenda. Control of the House means control of government spending. If Republicans claim they want to balance the budget; then balance the budget. If that means shutting down government agencies, then do it. The fact that they never reduce spending means they’re not serious.
The Republican’s conservative base wants less government spending; actual budgets passed, not these constant “continuing resolutions” that continue the huge deficit spending; transparency in government, not 2,000-page bills passed with no debate and no idea what’s in those bills; controlled immigration, not the border chaos we currently have; equal justice under the law, not the DoJ’s current persecution of conservatives. All these issues, and more, could be achieved if Republicans listened to their base and effectively used their House majority. The few Republicans who seem to understand the conservative agenda are Donald Trump, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and a few others. That’s exactly what the vote to oust McCarthy was about -- a fight for the heart of the Republican Party, a fight to drain the Swamp, and a fight for the Constitution.
After McCarthy was ousted as speaker, the Democrats and media talking heads mocked Republicans telling us that chaos will ensue. As Matt Gaetz said “You know what chaos is, it’s the dollar losing its status as the global reserve currency. Chaos is sitting on a $33 trillion debt. Chaos is accepting Biden budgets that lead to $2.2 trillion annual deficits forever. We’ve got to get the government to act with a sense of urgency.” Gaetz is spot on about all that.
People here in central Georgia often ho-hum what happens in Washington claiming it doesn’t affect them. Oh yes it does. One example is those huge Biden deficits; they affect all of us because it drives up inflation which increases interest rates. Remember those 3% mortgage interest rates when Trump was president? They’re now over 7% which translates into thousands of dollars in extra interest on mortgages and higher interest on credit cards.
So, if a new speaker moves the Republicans, the House, and the country to a position of fiscal responsibility, a sane border policy, smaller government via less spending, and away from the climate change hysteria, then this historic event will have been for the good. However, knowing how Republicans are so often duped and end up flat on their back, I have my doubts.