In the days and hours leading up to last week’s midterm elections, political leaders from both parties earnestly debated the extent to which Republicans and Democrats would be able to work together in the new Congress. And, predictably, Democrats began telling their GOP counterparts that it was time to stop the partisanship and work together.
Wait, wasn’t it Mr. Obama who suggested that Republicans sit in the back of the car that they metaphorically drove head-first into a ditch?
Not to mention the ever-so-subtle Harry Reid and his vast array of dementia-driven verbal carnage that has been launched at Republicans since he took the reins as Senate majority leader four years ago.
The truth is, since January 2009 the Democrat-controlled Congress and White House have exploited their supermajorities by shoving one piece of controversial legislation after another down the throats of the American people without a single shred of consent or compromise from the GOP.
And now they want everyone to forge an unforgettable and euphoric alliance.
Ironically it was Mr. Obama who campaigned on the idea of post-partisanship. And it was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who boldly professed two years prior that her Congress would be the most ethical and upstanding ever.
Obviously, neither of those grandiose ideas actually came to fruition.
Meanwhile, befuddled Democrats have vowed to press on even after having been rejected at the ballot box, because, unfortunately, they have yet to come to grips with the fact that the American people fired them on Tuesday.
This midterm election was not about poor communication or a childish electorate, as most left-leaning media talking heads would have us believe. The election was a double-middle finger salute to the face of big government from a center-right nation.
Under the leadership of Mr. Obama, Washington politics has become laced with backroom deals and seedy brokering tactics that would make Hugo Chavez tingle with exhilaration. Perhaps the one good element that has surfaced from this mess is that Americans have finally become aware that government, if left unrestrained, will become flagrantly arbitrary.
The Democrats who remain in Congress are part of an ever-shrinking group of left-wing ideologues who represent only 20 percent of the American electorate. Hence, with the so-called Blue Dog Caucus now a former shell of what it once was, Democrats have nowhere to move except towards the center.
With a president who seems fixated on waiving the uber-liberal banner, this obvious shift appears unlikely to happen. This means that, for most Americans, government stalemate is more appealing than compromise.
It’s time for the Republican Party to draw a line in the sand.
Ashley Stinnett lives in West Virginia, where he serves as an adjunct college instructor, writer, media and public relations consultant, public speaker and political commentator He is a registered member of the West Virginia Associated Press, and is a nationally syndicated columnist. He is the author of the new book, “Grasping Appalachian Conservatism: How Not to be Mistaken for a Latte Liberal.”
