Woodshed Politics

Tuesday, the Massachusetts Independents and Conservatives ran roughshod over the Democrat machine. To say that I'm ecstatic would be an understatement. OBummer probably needs a couple more TVs in the WH after doing some impromptu, unscripted demolition, but that's OK, he's got the taxpayers' money and a Nobel Prize to pay for them.

But, before we commence breaking our arms patting ourselves on the back, we need to look at what happened in Mass. and consider how to do it better next time.

Senator Scott Brown is a liberal Republican. Granted he's the lesser of two evils and will serve the purposes of the nation by being in that seat for sure. But I think one can easily show that he leans much farther left than most in the Republican party. So here's what I'm really getting at. We've got less than a year before the 2010 elections. We need Real Conservatives in the upcoming elections if we are to keep up the momentum and I'm not just talking on a state or national level.

Get Local and Get Vocal:
Former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill once said  "All politics is local."

I agree. We need to start from the bottom up. Nominate the best candidates you can find for your local elections. This is where the grass roots will really take hold in the next two or three election cycles. If we can catapult some of these into State offices this year, fine but the point is, most of those running at that level are already entrenched in their campaigns. So let's set about finding the future Conservative leaders this year.

On Term Limits:
To all those people who keep up the "Term Limits" and "Throw Them All Out" mantras. I want to point out just how dangerous those philosophies are. For one, they are rooted in a lazy attitude towards politics. It says that you are too lazy to do your own research. Does the politician you are about to throw out deserve to be thrown out like bad house guest? If so, good. Kick them out but remember, in the end we voters are at fault for letting the freeloader stay in the guestroom for too long.

If you are truly voting your political beliefs then he may be the right person for the job and with the TL or TTAO philosophy, you've just taken a valuable asset off the playing field. Especially in the case of an experienced politician, the newly elected will be slowed by the learning curve and possibly outflanked by the opposition. I would rather we keep the good ones and get rid of the bad.

Another argument against TL would be that a politician who knew he was about to lose his seat would have no accountability, no allegiance to the voter who should grade his performance. That sets up the special interest buying a vote at the last of his term, with no repercussions except for the citizen. The answer to this is not term limits. The answer is a more involved and informed voting base.

Define Your Beliefs:
This is merely a caution not to vote angry. We need to vote for something, not against something else and getting started locally is the only way to set up future elections for that end.

This past Presidential election is a perfect example of a population voting against  a person rather than voting for a set of principles. We all know where that got us. That kind of angry voting lead us to the situation we're in now. With government breathing down our backs and threatening to take over one sixth of the economy.

But it also awakened us and got a lot of people fired up!

Let's stoke that fire with fresh blood from the local woodpile.



HT Villainous Company
The American Conservative