All the bell ringing and cheering you heard today was conservatives celebrating the turnover of the House of Representatives. It is a celebration well earned. Riding the enthusiasm of the grass-roots Tea Party and driven by a public that is tired of an out-of-touch, out-of-control Congress, the landslide election of last November 2 culminated in John Boehner taking the gavel of leadership from Nancy Pelosi. As one wag on Twitter said, “It will be nice to have a Speaker who won’t call us Nazis.”
There was reason to celebrate on the Senate side, also. The highly intelligent, Pat Toomey, replaces the execrable, Arlen Specter, as the Senator from Pennsylvania, thereby effecting a dramatic leap in the cumulative IQ of the upper house, even though Sens. Barbara Boxer and Debbie Stabenow continue to act as an anchor on that statistic. Probably the new Senator who caused the biggest stir, however, is Florida Senator, Marco Rubio. A young, handsome, well-spoken conservative of Cuban descent and Tea Party darling, many expect that Rubio may, one day, wind up in the Oval Office.
But while today was a day of celebration, we must keep in mind that the job is only half done. No, I’m not speaking of the 2012 elections when, hopefully, a conservative will ascend to the Presidency and, my personal project, Debbie Stabenow is returned to private life as part of a Senate take-over by Republicans. I am speaking of our duty to serve as citizen watchdogs over our government.
So far, the Republicans have said all the right things. They realize that they were not elected because everyone loves the Republican Party, but that they were elected because the people thought they might suck less than the Democrats. While that will no doubt be true, the bar is set pretty low and, frankly, past experience with the Republicans is not particularly encouraging.
Each party comes to Washington promising that, this time, things will be different. Each promises to govern responsibly, and each rapidly succumbs to the temptations of power and knuckles to the pressure of their leadership.
In no Congress in my lifetime, and possibly ever, was this more evident than in the 111th Congress. In spite of spirited confrontations in town hall meetings and polls ranging greater than 60% of the American people opposed, the Democrat controlled Congress disregarded public sentiment and rammed through the highly unpopular Health Care Affordability Act as only one of its many legislative abuses. Multiple statements by the Democratic congressional leadership and the President demonstrated the disdain held for the very people they were sent to Washington to represent.
Much of the problem with the Democrats in the 111th Congress is that they interpreted their large margin of victory with a popular mandate for their policies, rather than the response of a war-weary country and an unpopular President. The Republicans in the 112th Congress must avoid this same temptation, and it is up to those who elected them to make sure that they do.
So celebrate tonight, because the second half of the job starts tomorrow. Those of us who are conservative must remain vigilant and hold our Congress critter’s feet to the fire. We must make sure that they understand that it really can no longer be business as usual. Conservatives cannot any longer allow Republicans to get away with fiscal or legislative irresponsibility simply because they are Republicans. Our new Congress critters must understand that they represent the people and will be held accountable for their actions. If not, they should understand that they will go the way of their predecessors.
So get ready, conservatives. We’ve still got a long way to go.
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