The Conservative Mood

As somewhat of a political junkie, I watched the 2nd Republican candidate debate with great interest.  That’s not surprising to those who know me.  What was surprising was that despite how early we are in the process, its length (3 hours), and moderator Jake Tapper’s penchant for focusing on fireworks instead of policy positions, this debate proved to be CNN’s most watched debate ever.  Twenty three million – nearly 1 in 10 Americans (at least the legal ones) – were actually paying attention to what the Republican candidates had to say.  I believe this portends well for the state of our republic.

What I find most encouraging is that the top two candidates in all the polls – Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump, as well as the rising star Carly Fiorina, have this one thing in common:  they are all Washington outsiders.  Although not currently polling as high as the others, I have to include the anti-establishment Ted Cruz in the outsider list as well, since he is effectively 'persona non grata' with Republican leadership.

While I have been working on these thoughts for several months now, I suppose one could argue that none of these outsiders have the experience and/or the temperament to be the leader of the free world.  Doctor Carson may indeed just be too nice a guy, Mr. Trump too 'New York' brash, Ms. Fiorina inspiring but too inexperienced.

But consider here for a moment that perhaps the message being sent is truly just that simple:  Americans want someone they can respect and trust (like Carson), someone who will tell us what he thinks and take the heat (like Trump), and someone who is a fresh face to lead us (such as Fiorina).  What we clearly don’t want - Washington D.C. experience.  The thought of that must be keeping the establishment Republicans awake at night.

Yet this is a situation created entirely by the Republican establishment.  The apparent strategy of having a well-funded, anointed-by-the establishment candidate (Bush with Christie as a backup) running against a handful of gad-flys (Graham, Kasich, Paul, Trump), and so many committed conservatives as to hopelessly split up both their money and votes (Carson, Cruz, Fiorina, Huckabee, Jindal, Perry, Rubio, Santorum, Walker, etc.) seems to have back-fired on them this time.

Now conservatives in general have about had enough of Republican candidates telling us what we want to hear, but failing to act once we send them to Washington on our behalf.

• Recall John Boehner famously saying that we only control one-half of one-third of the government. 
• Keep in mind how we were told that all you have to do is give Boehner and Mitch McConnell a Congressional majority in 2014 and they will accomplish great and wonderful things.
• Remember that the few who are serious about enacting the things we sent them there to do (including Senator Cruz) are marginalized by the elite, castigated in the media, and - if in Boehner’s House - stripped of their rank and committee positions.

Indeed, as conservatives we have seen effectively no practical differences coming out of the current Boehner/McConnell Congress than when Harry Reid was in charge in the last session.

Just a couple examples:  Obamacare is steaming full speed ahead and taking the healthcare system with it over a cliff, while the Executive branch has taken rewriting or enacting its own legislation that it can’t get from Congress, and/or simply refusing to execute laws it doesn’t like - effectively emasculating the Constitutional balance of powers.  All indications are that Planned Parenthood will unabashedly continue its gruesome activities at taxpayer expense while auctioning off ‘baby parts’ to the highest bidder all the while repeating the mantra ‘women’s health’ - this because of John Boehner’s cowardly refusal to exercise the power of the purse Constitutionally given to the House of Representatives.  Yes, conservatives are sick of being used, abused, and lied to.

Putting my own candidate preferences aside, I would almost like for a Trump to be the GOP candidate just to stick it in the eye of the Republican establishment.  (Please note, however, that I said “almost”.)  A Dr. Carson candidacy would be both honestly refreshing and comforting while giving our young people an incredible role model of hard work leading to achievement.  Having Fiorina as the (“beautiful” *) face of the GOP would be reminiscent of Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher’s principled leadership of the U.K.  Just the prospect of the quick-witted former prosecutor, Ted Cruz, skewering Hillary Clinton on the debate stage in front of the entire nation gives me goose-bumps.  And governors Walker, Jindal, and Huckabee, too, seem to be principled, articulate conservatives from outside the Washington beltway.  Yet, it is very hard not to be cynical about any of these scenarios ever happening.

Even from within the mainstream, some are apparently beginning to take note of the all too cynical mood of the nation.  Speaking in a more general sense of the entire electorate, former U.S. Rep. Vin Weber has concluded that voters have reached a “breaking-point” in regards to the dysfunction of the status quo.  Bothered by the fact that for more than a decade the American people have been saying that the nation is on the wrong track, he states “Eventually, that has a corrosive effect on our politics.”  Speaking before the U. of M.’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs yesterday (09/17/15), Weber (who is a Bush supporter), noted that while the electorate is currently venting their anger at the establishment candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, because the system is rigged in their favor, they will both eventually be nominated.

Hopefully, this prediction will be proved incorrect.  In the end, I would like to believe that the American people will ultimately rise above and take their country back - taking it back from an unconstitutionally expanding centralized government, back from the ever more imperial presidency, back from a dangerously over-reaching Supreme Court, back from a Praetorian Guard media, and in the case of the GOP, back from a self-serving, principle-less Republican establishment.  An establishment which has given us bland, spineless, milquetoast, and ultimately un-electable (as evidenced by 4 of the last 6 presidential cycles) candidates – the kind that will lose every time to their committed, youthful, and charismatic opponents.

Perhaps the time has come for a principled conservative.

* quoting Donald Trump in referring to Fiorina from Wednesday’s CNN presidential debate

ADDENDUM:  I just (09/23/15) read this editorial that explains pretty well what is wrong with establishment Republicanism.  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/ted-cruz-republican-party-surrender-213179#ixzz3mb6aT7JB