Pete Hoekstra is a cigarette, and America is a patient with stage-three lung cancer. Hoekstra won’t kill the patient, but he certainly won’t help matters.
With Dick Lugar down and Orrin Hatch on the ropes, local tea parties around the country are brimming with confidence. They should be. Wave elections like 2010 are often followed by even larger waves. The U.S. Senate race in Michigan is another proving ground for the tea party and an opportunity to rid itself of another weak Republican.
The Michigan state GOP and Washington establishment have thrown their lots in with former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. He must be defeated. Here are a few reasons.
1.) Hoekstra voted for H.R. 980: The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007.
When you understand this one, you won’t need four other reasons.
Effectively, this bill is a steroid shot for unions. It would have forced employers to collectively bargain with unions nationwide. If enacted, every policeman, firefighter and paramedic would certainly be unionized, and their combined collective bargaining would stress municipal and state budgets to the breaking point. Additional stress would have been placed on private employers.
If you like the free market and prosperity, you should loathe this bill. It’s a job killer. If you want Republicans to win elections, you should fear this bill. Public employee unions already put billions of your tax dollars into Democratic Party coffers. This legislation would strengthen unions and help them recruit, dumping billions more into the unholy, never-ending cycle of your tax dollars becoming public employee union dues and then contributions to Democratic campaigns. In the end, support for this bill amounts to support for the Democratic Party and its policies, because passing the bill would help Democrats get elected.
Thankfully, the bill was defeated. But Pete Hoekstra voted for it. (It’s no wonder he has earned the endorsement of Jimmy Hoffa Jr.)
2.) Hoekstra voted for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout.
It still staggers the imagination.
In brief, here’s what happened: Our dumb government told banks to lend money to poor people so that they could buy houses. Poor people took the loans and bought houses. Our dumb government then guaranteed the security of the loans, despite the borrowers’ inability to make payments. With that guarantee, Wall Street packaged and sold bad mortgages to nearly every investor on the planet. Then the loans went bad, and Pete Hoekstra voted to reward stupid investors, provide cover for the government’s idiocy and claim heroics while doing so for “saving” our financial system. Hoekstra’s vote saved us from a government-spawned problem that began, ballooned and exploded during his watch.
The bailout didn’t fix anything. It didn’t save anyone. It was a bonfire with nearly a trillion of your tax dollars. It also set a dangerous precedent by allowing the government to meddle in the free market. Though Hoekstra wasn’t the only Republican to vote for this bill, his vote remains inexcusable.
3.) Hoekstra voted to raise the debt ceiling five times.
Hoekstra calls himself a conservative. Conservatives believe that the federal government should be smaller, have a narrower scope and spend less. Any reasonable person would look at Hoekstra’s 18 years in Congress and observe that this man has failed to live up to his principles. If Pete Hoekstra were conservative or circumspect, he might have the humility to make that observation himself and decide not to run. He isn’t. He doesn’t. So the tea party is going to have to assist him into retirement.
4.) Hoekstra voted for the $233 million “Bridge to Nowhere.”
Pete Hoekstra has helped waste and witnessed without objection the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars in the form of earmarks.
5.) Hoekstra makes terrible commercials.
Seriously. Just awful.
There are several worthy conservative alternatives to Hoekstra. Clark Durant, Gary Glenn, Randy Hekman and Peter Konetchy each have vigorous campaigns with loyal followings. Of the challengers, Clark Durant has raised the most money. Gary Glenn appears to have the strongest grassroots support; he won a statewide tea party vote in February.
Whomever Michigan’s Republicans unite behind needs full tea party support to win on August 7. Hoekstra is a business-as-usual Republican, and, at this precarious moment, business-as-usual will destroy our republic. Pete Hoekstra has the financial support of the GOP establishment because they know him. They know he won’t upset the applecart. Durant, Glenn, Hekman and Konetchy would kick the applecart down a flight of stairs and then set it on fire. We need one of them in the U.S. Senate.
Yates Walker is a conservative activist and writer. Before becoming involved in politics, he served honorably as a paratrooper and a medic in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He can be reached at yateswalker@gmail.com.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Hoekstra voted for the Employee Free Choice Act. In fact, he voted for H.R. 980: The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007.