The political adage holds that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This adage’s not-irrational assumption is that “the enemy of my enemy is also me.”
Unless, it seems, you’re the Republican Congress.
Having once served with many of you, I understand and empathize as you contend with obstructionist Democrats, a hostile media, and internecine ideological and political schisms in your collective endeavor to affirm and advance American greatness amidst the transformational challenges facing our nation in this chaotic age.
Truly, I do not envy you.
Don’t fret. As a guitar player, I won’t be singing in the Greek chorus of mounting complaints regarding your performance to date—or the lack thereof. But at times it seems you’re intent on proving the sagacity of Ralph Waldo Emerson (you know, the keyboard player in Emerson, Lake, and Palmer): “As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.”
I’m sure no one is more frustrated about this stasis of affairs than you are—save for the sovereign citizens who entrusted you with a majority to steer the ship of state toward the distant shore of better days after eight years adrift under the Obama Administration and its mercifully fleeting Democratic majority. Yet every great journey has its missteps and stumbles; and, in your case, dead-ender Democrats trying to cut you off at the knees.
But you knew this going in and have been ceaselessly reminded of it 24/7/52/365: Ladies and gentlemen, you’re not paranoid; the Left is out to get you. And, in the immortal word of Andrew Breitbart, “So?” Despite the Left, you’re in Congress because of the people who believe you will affirm and advance American greatness. They believe there is greatness in you.
Such is not the illusory “greatness” Emerson decried (I think in “Lucky Man”), whereby one “crawls through life a paralytic to earn the praise of bard and critic.” It is the true greatness Emerson extolled (I’m paraphrasing here): “Stand your ground and the world will come ’round.”
That time is now.
Of course, to stand for principle is not to stand still; nor content oneself with playing defense, however earnest, against the Left’s insane attacks upon humanity’s enduring verities and virtues that have made and kept America great. You don’t get off that easy, Tiger. You are compelled by the honor you sought, and God and the voters granted, to actively affirm and advance American greatness, and to do it all the while aware of the unattractive consequences of your course—and, it being the swamp, the temptations and threats proffered to induce your retreat. Yet, this is why voters glimpsed a simple, elegant greatness in you:
You’ve got the guts to do what you must and not give a damn who doesn’t dig it.
This you can and will do. Because, like your voters, you know America is always great; and it is the government and the racket of hacks and hucksters infesting its swamp that suck. And, thus, you know why the people consented to entrust you as its servants in a Republican majority: To free the people from the swamp.
So . . .
Free the people to pursue their American dreams.
Free the people to keep what they earn.
Free the people to escape the welfare state’s soul-crushing cycle of poverty, despair, and dependence.
Free the people to enjoy their hearth of home by defeating tyrants and terrorists.
Free the people to heal our nation by speaking, acting and engaging in accordance with the dictates of their consciences absent any fear of governmental coercion under the guise and guileful enforcement of “political correctness.”
In sum, free the people to inspire the world with what America achieves!
And that’s just for starters. (Talk about a “honey-do” list.)
Sure it won’t be a leisurely stroll through the swamp. You’ll step in some quicksand and bogs and some other stuff you’d prefer not be identified as it clings to the bottom of your shoes. But as the heirs of our party’s first president, “the Great Emancipator,” and that “Gipper” fellow who liberated the world from an evil empire, you’ll make it.
I just humbly submit you might pick up the pace a bit. In this social media-driven and riven world, folks are growing increasingly impatient in their pursuit of happiness.
Godspeed, GOP!
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