The New Republican Virtue Of Cowardice

Michael Barone:

Many Republican House members, and the bloggers and tea partiers who cheered their victory in gaining a majority in November 2010, seem to be seething with discontent and eager for confrontation.

They believe, reasonably, that their victory represented a repudiation of the vast expansion of government by the Obama Democrats. They want to see those policies reversed, and pronto. And if the dilatory Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the all-campaign-no-governance President Obama want a confrontation, so much the better.
Such impatience is unbecoming in those who call themselves “constitutional conservatives.” It is James Madison’s Constitution that prevents the winners of one election from directing the course of public policy as unilaterally as, to take one example, the British Labor party marched Britain into a socialist welfare state on the basis of one election victory in 1945.

This is utter hog-wash!We who want less government and to reduce its power over our lives DO NOT expect a return to Constitutional government over night.In fact most of us know it won't happen in our lifetimes.

We know we will have to have both the House and a filibuster proof Senate,with the Presidency just to begin to restore our nation to its Constitutional roots.We also know that the battle will not just be in Washington,but in the streets all across America.The Left -the Union-thugs and Occupy Wall Street- will rage with violence at the end of government programs that they have been conditioned to be dependent upon;being encouraged to do so by the crony capitalist who have enriched themselves at the expense of the state.It will be a very long and enduring fight.

The problem that I and others have with the Republicans in Congress,is not in their prudence in picking the right fight,but in their refusal to stand up and fight at all.Their strategy seems to be to avoid confrontation with Obama and the Democrats at all cost,caving in at every opportunity.They may not be able to roll back the welfare state,but they DO NOT have to be a party to its expansion.

Patience is a virtue,but cowardice is not.This exactly what John Boehner and the GOP leadership in the House has exhibited,cowardice.I will not be lectured to,by Michael Barone or any other Washington insider on being impatient,when we are led in Washington by a bunch of cowards.