The Gospel Truth

Armageddon Was Yesterday…Today We Have a…

In the first leg, The Girl With Dragon Tattoo, of the late Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, the main character Lisbeth Salander wore a tee-shirt that said, Armageddon was yesterday…today we have a serious problem.

I thought it would be a perfect quote for the 2010 election.

I had lived the last few months in severe trepidation.  I knew that the future of our country and even that of my family could hang in the balance.

While I am not certain last night was an Armageddon but it certainly did shake the rafters of the Democratic Party.

To me the important part of the saying is the second part.  The ball is now in the Republicans’ court and they better do something more than dribble all over the place.

Also they should NOT take the results as a vindication of their past policies.

Obama’s mantra of the past few years, the failed policies of the past rang true—to the degree that they were almost indistinguishable from those that he was offering.

Bush’s tax cuts were not the problem.

In fact along with Alito and Roberts, they were the highlights of his eight years in office.

No, Bush and some many of his neo-con advisers had adopted the big-spending policies of the left in order to curry favor with the voters.

Whose voters I ask?

Certainly not people like me?

Their past history should have told them that a me-too kind of approach to big government and profligate spending would only insure a ballot box rejection.

Bush’s Republicans had forgotten their base and it took a new movement, the Spirit of ‘76 from the Tea Party goers to rejuvenate their base.

While there were disappointments in Nevada, Delaware and maybe Alaska, the basic ideas of the Tea Party people won and won big.

The Tea Party movement was unlike any that I can remember in political history.

It provided the human juice and energy that pulsated through the veins of the electorate last night.

Unlike most other third party movements, their leaders attempted to work within the framework of the two-party systems.

Had they not done so, the results of last night would have been remarkably different.

That idea reminded me of the former Tax Payer Party, now the Constitution Party.

I was a delegate to their national convention in St. Louis in 1999.

Howard Philips and my friend Joseph Sobran were the original candidates that year–I think Joe dropped out after just a few weeks.

He was more an intellect than a politician.

What disturbed me was how that they seemed more hostile toward regular Republicans than they were toward Democrats.

Even Sobran’s post-election columns centered more on the inadequacies of President Bush.

I thought that a foolish thing to do, since the Democratic agenda was driving us over a cultural and economic cliff at warp speeds.

What I didn’t realize was that they planned to destroy the Republican Party and resurrect a new party out of the ashes.

They was a dumb idea and was doomed to failure.

The 2010 Tea Partiers got it right.

My big personal disappointment was that Ed Martin, a fellow Holy Cross alumnus did not enjoy a resounding victory at the end of the evening. It seems that suddenly his narrow margin turned into a surprising 4,500 vote lead for Russ Carnahan.

Now Ed is investigating some possible examples of voter fraud that may hold up the process.

This would not surprise me in a close election.

Strange things may have happened in Nevada where Harry Reid surprised everybody with his relentless victory.

With regards to fraudulent elections, I do not accept the idea of both sides do it.

Republicans may occasionally try to beat the system, but with Democrats, it is an intricate part of their game plan.

The medieval atheists Machiavelli is one of the party’s patron saints.

Like Democrats, winning was the only thing and the means were always justified.

By for now I look forward to the next election.

By 2012 the Tea Party advocates will own the Republican Party and if they are really good it will be a party of the basic American virtues as smaller government, lower taxes, respect abroad, and secure borders.

Hopefully they will retire all the Quislings who lined up with Republicans while wearing the uniform of the opposing side–I am talking about the likes of Lisa Murkowski, and Charlie Crist and even vestigial Republicans like Trent Lott and Lindsey Graham.

I also heard Rush mention a former Nevada Republican State Chairman, who endorsed Reid over Sharron Angle. His name is Frank Fahrenkopf and he is head of one of the gaming unions.  It’s that kind of good old boy network than rings the death knell for the Republican Party.

I also fear that some of these Republicans will fall victim to the promises of the president who offers the olive branch of not surrender but compromise… that is what the farmer does with the turkey until Thanksgiving.

No the Republicans need to be decisive, strong and fully determined to take the heat, not what Newt Gingrich did back in 1995.

My wife was upset with me when the probable Republican future Speaker of the House, John Boehner broke down in tears.

I was embarrassed for him and the party.

Tears were the last thing that the American people needed to see from the third most important person in our government.

Boehner has to stifle his emotions, bite his lip and lead like a man, not a sensitive Beta kind of guy.

After two years of Obama, American politics has little need of the Alan Alda type of sensitive male.  Mr. Boehner should have known better.

I am watching him as are millions and millions of American voters who are looking ahead to 2012 to complete the surge that left a few Democrats standing after all was said and done last night.

If they turn their back on the Tea Party spirit, they will go the way of their predecessors, the Federalists and the Whigs.

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