Early this morning, Senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran joined Senators Rand Paul and Susan Collins in opposing the Senate Health Care Reform bill. Immediately, President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came out in favor of simply repealing Obamacare first and then working toward a bi-partisan solution to healthcare over the next two years. However, this upset the female Senators in the Republican Party. Senators Collins, Capito, and Murkowski immediately came out in opposition to repealing Obamacare.
So…
It’s over. Let’s just process this and move on.
Lately, I’ve been lumped in with “the establishment” and “the swamp” – so let me just offer an establishment line to wet your whistles: If we want to repeal Obamacare, we’re going to need a Super Majority in the Senate.
What I really am is a Constitutionalist, a Libertarian, and a conservative Republican – so let me just offer some advice from that point of view: We were lied to. We were played. The Party was never going to repeal Obamacare. We have about forty to sixty Congressmen and women in the House of Representatives that want to repeal the ACA, and around five Senators. We’re not going to repeal the ACA until there is a national crisis; and even then we’ll spend most of the crisis pointing fingers. Democrats are already blaming Republicans for Obamacare.
In Washington D.C., nobody does anything without a crisis. The problem is that every crisis demands a government solution, more government involvement, and more government oversight.
Be alarmed. Be Angry. Hell, be pissed off and post every angry thought that comes across your mind on Facebook in order to add to the gurgling social media hysteria. However, accept that it’s going to be OK. Probably.
Reality isn’t always pretty. Reality isn’t always nice. Reality is rarely ever ideal. However, reality does possess the singular virtue of preparing you for the future. We must accept that what is actually going to happen is that we’re going to wait until Obamacare starts killing enough of us for it to matter to Congress. We must accept that the Republicans will blame the Democrats and the Democrats will blame the Republicans. We must accept that unless there is a massive cultural and philosophical revolution in this country, nothing substantial is ever going to change.
Earlier today, I was working on an assignment for my speechwriting course and one of the speeches I focused in on was President Bill Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union address. In this speech, President Clinton announced that “the era of the big government was over. But…” (Clinton, 1996).
But what?
But we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves. Instead, we must go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we face together. Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues; we must have both. I believe our new, smaller Government must work in an old-fashioned American way, together with all of our citizens through State and local governments, in the workplace, in religious, charitable, and civic associations. Our goal must be to enable all our people to make the most of their own lives, with stronger families, more educational opportunity, economic security, safer streets, a cleaner environment in a safer world.”
How did that work out for us?
Let’s be at least a little bit honest. Wall Street is doing better than ever. The Government is pissing money down the drain. The counties surrounding Washington D.C. are the wealthiest counties in the world.
Virginia – It’s OK to be angry. Activists, you got played. You were lied to. The Leadership in the House and Senate used you to elevate themselves. There’s nothing you can do about it.
Congressmen Wittman, Garrett, and Brat are outstanding conservative representatives. Griffith and Taylor aren’t the problem. Even Congressman Goodlatte isn’t the problem in Congress.
Our elected officials aren’t creating this mess and we can’t vote in other States.
What are our real problems in Virginia? We have a Clinton-plant Governor and two comrades serving us as Senator. If we’re really upset with what we’re seeing in the Senate, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. We need to defeat Warner and Kaine. That has to be a priority for us. We’ve already given the House of Representatives a handful of the best Congressmen the nation could produce. We even have an uber-conservative House of Delegates and a slim center-right State Senate. Yet, without a Republican Governor, it means nothing.
So while the national news makes us crazy, let’s focus on that which we can actually effect. We need a Republican Governor. We need to work to ensure Ed Gillespie is the next Governor of our Commonwealth. We need to defeat Senator Kaine in 2018. If that means nominating Stewart, fine. If that means nominating some establishment corporate hack from California, fine. If that means taking a chance on a relatively unknown liberty candidate, FINE!
We have to win. We need to stay focused on what our job is. Our job is not to whine and complain. We gave Congress Garrett, Brat, Wittman, Taylor, Comstock, Goodlatte, and Griffith. As far as States go, we’re doing one of the best jobs in the House!
We are failing miserably in statewide elections. Do you want to stop Obamacare and the rest of the liberal agenda? Then we need to defeat Senator Mark Warner, Senator Tim Kaine, and candidate Ralph Northam. Period. End of story. What else can we actually do? We can’t vote in Kentucky or Wisconsin. Does anyone have any idea how pissed off Republicans in those States get when we try to invade their territory and tell them who to vote for?
I’m with you, Virginia. I’m pissed off at the National Republican Party. I feel lied to and betrayed. I believe that leadership pretended to be against the ACA in order to rise to power on the wings of our righteous malcontent. But we’ve already given Congress a conservative backbone. We’ve already demonstrated that we’re willing to fight for conservative causes.
Why focus our anger on the party? What good will that do? We’re going to be OK. We’re the ones setting the example. If every State elected candidates like Brat, Wittman, and Garrett, our nation would be in good hands. Let’s focus on what we’ve failed to do. Let’s set goals we can actually fulfill. Let’s take back Richmond. Let’s take back our Senate seats. Let’s make Virginia greater again.
