Letter From America

Pleasing Lady Michelle

A Lesson for Democrats in Massachusetts, and One in D.C.

By David Bahnsen on January 18, 2010

[Editor's note: this was written on the eve of the historic Massachusett's election which rejected Democratic control of its representation in the US Senate.]

Earlier this year the SNL comedian Al Franken was sworn in as a Senator in the state of Minnesota. The reason he defeated Norm Coleman is because he cheated, and cheated egregiously. The only reason it was ever close was because Norm Coleman was part of a Republican party that was being justifiably taught a lesson by the voters.

Tomorrow, January 19, I believe Republican Scott Brown is going to win the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy. . . . Win or lose, the only reason this race is even close is because the Democratic Party is justifiably being taught a lesson by the voters: Cool your horses.

Unlike some of my conservative friends, I do not buy into the idea that the country is undergoing a Damascus Road conversion towards individual responsibility. I believe that will happen some day, and I think there is a blatant rejection of Obama-style-Euro-statism going on right before our eyes, but I still shudder at the willingness of too many contemporary Americans to yearn for government programs as the solution to their problems.

However, despite the fact that there is work to be done (lots of it) by conservatives, there is no question that the so-called Obama mandate of 2008 was a farce, and when ideological egomaniacs with visions of collectivist grandeur dancing in their heads decide that they have been anointed to usher in a new era of big government, the DNA of America still shouts back: what do you think you are doing? The $1 trillion stimulus bill was pretty bold, wouldn’t you say? If I had been in a coma the last ten years (not too long), and woke up to read my article, I would just assume the author was using “trillion” for its hyperbolic effect; obviously, that could not be an actual number. But alas, it is.

How about the bailout of the automakers? Cap-and-trade legislation? Abusive sweetheart deals for unions everywhere one looks? The largest tax increase in U.S. history? Mark your calendar: 12/31/10. Oh yeah. And then there is “health care reform”, the kind of reform where costs go up and services get cut. Has this been an ambitious first year for this President? It seems moderate for his radicalist supporters, because as Paul Krugman says, the stimulus was too small, and the health care package not progressive enough. But as the Brown/Coakley debacle shows in Massachusetts, a referendum election if there ever was one, the American people may not have finalized their understanding of Keynes vs. Friedman, but they do smell a deficit-growing rat when it overstays its welcome. Martha Coakley is a victim of the Obama rat gone mad.

Bill Clinton mastered the art of playing the middle – governing from the center-left while occasionally throwing a bone to the center-right. Obama, a beneficiary of extraordinary voter angst at the wasted Republican leadership of the 2000’s, felt like such niceties were beneath him. . . .

[I am] betting that the lesson falls on deaf ears. Extremist ideology is decidedly non-pragmatic. Obama will sacrifice a lot more Martha Coakley’s on his way to an America that his wife can finally be proud of.