By Douglas V. Gibbs
In November of 2010 the Republican Party enjoyed a landslide victory in the House of Representatives, in the State Houses, and made significant ground in the U.S. Senate. The GOP enjoyed this victory not because of Republican politics, or the savvy of the GOP establishment, but because of the ascendancy of Conservatism, largely due to the influence of the grassroots Tea Party movement. The liberal left Democrats would like you to think that November was a fluke, that people were confused, or it happened because the Democrats didn't put forth enough liberal programs and people voted Republican to get back at the Democrat Party. The reality is, this is a center-right nation, and the conservative voters have been silent - not because they don't care to vote, but because the Republican establishment has been putting forth candidates that many conservatives feel aren't a whole lot different from the opposition. The GOP has fallen for the liberal rhetoric that it takes a moderate to win. However, history teaches us otherwise. McCain was a moderate, and lost. Reagan was a true conservative, and won (twice by landslide).
Voters are looking for more than just conservative candidates to lead the Republican Party. Voters also desire candidates that not only "can" take Obama down in a debate, but candidates that have the fortitude and guts to actually do it. This is where the gutsy Conservatives come into play. In a head to head debate with conservatives on the issues, the liberal democrats don't stand a chance. This is why the liberals attack personally, or try to silence them through ridicule. Their strategy is to destroy candidates, not beat them fairly. If Obama had run his campaign on what he truly planned to do, he would have lost. He had to sound like a tax-cutting, careful spending conservative to win - and that's what he did.
Leaders are a special breed, and do not come easy. Conservative "leaders" must realize that leadership is not the ability to dictate as the liberal left Democrats may think, but the ability to stand for their principles despite the attacks from the liberal left, and even from the establishment Republicans. Leadership is putting principles before party, and convictions before politics.
A few Republicans have surfaced that have the guts to do what is right. One example, not that he is running for president in 2012, is Paul Ryan. The White House knows that the Paul Ryan budget is something that could hurt them drastically. The Democrats are truly frightened of conservatives like Paul Ryan. They go after him with every attack they can muster. Paul Ryan is principled, and is willing to take the fight to the Democrats. A real Reagan conservative, some might say. The reality is that the Democrats are scared of Paul Ryan.
The Paul Ryan budget has been demonized, and as expected, lied about. The big liberal fabrication is that the Medicare provisions in Ryan's budget would destroy Medicare. It is the same argument they used when they claimed racial profiling was in Arizona's immigration bill. It's not only a lie, the budget proposal actually takes careful steps to save Medicare, or at least turn it into something more viable, and less federally dependent. Under Paul Ryan's budget proposal, nothing changes for Medicare recipients age 55 and older. Then, for those younger than 55, when they reach the age of retirement, the system slowly starts making changes that include more choices, and a slow privatization of the program.
To be frank, Medicare, and all health systems funded by the federal government, are unconstitutional. But people have built their lives around the expectation of receiving these benefits, so we can't just pull the rug out from under them. The eventual elimination of these unconstitutional programs must be incremental, slowly reformed so that someday down the road they become obsolete because a private counterpart has taken government's place. That is what Ryan's plan initiates. The proposal saves Medicare, and begins the process of transforming it into something more sustainable. Under Obamacare, Medicare suffers from less funding, and the eventual absorption into a single-payer system that true to its socialist roots, would take away choice, and simultaneously destroy the private health care industry.
The Left, as is true to their nature, has launched attack after attack against Ryan's proposed budget. The problem is, the attacks are also coming from within Ryan's own party. The establishment Republicans, the liberal-light Republicans, fear and hate conservatism. Now even the "moderates" of the GOP are trying to take out Paul Ryan. They are warning the candidates not to take up with Ryan's budget, that it could be an election loser, they are trying to scare Republicans away from the Ryan budget.
Ryan's plan uses choice and competition, the free market, to lower the costs to seniors. Medicares' role in the future will be to simply subsidize plans, while putting seniors more in charge of their own health care.
As for the Democrat's, and establishment Republican's, claim that Ryan's bill is a real loser? Don't forget that the alternative, Obama's budget proposal, went down in the Senate 97-0.
The fact is, and the Democrats know this (which is why they attack Ryan's budget so heavily), that if ever the entitlement programs are eliminated, it will spell the end of the Democrat Party. The only reason the Democrats get votes is because they figured out a way to enable the public to vote themselves gifts from the public treasury through the Democrats. That's the reason that the Founding Fathers decided against putting in place a pure democracy in this country. With all the talk about our democratic government, nobody seems to realize we are not a democracy, we are a republic, and for good reason. Democracies fail, collapse, and become oligarchies under the weight of mob rule. Once the people, under a democracy, having the power of voting for all government functions without limit, realize they can simply vote themselves gifts from the public treasury, the system becomes unsustainable and collapses. The Democrats figured out a way to do that through our current system. They redistribute the wealth, giving gifts from the treasure, and the people who are dependent, and addicted to, these entitlements vote Democrat to keep the gifts coming. Without the entitlement programs in place, the Democrat Party would be no more, and we would move closer to what the Founding Fathers originally intended.
The GOP needs to move ahead with their vote to reform Medicare, and continue to push it despite any defeats in the Senate, or other obstacles the panicking leftists throw in front of them, because it is a winning strategy, it will improve the system, it will cut spending, and it will be a major step in the direction of ending the authoritarian tyranny of the Democrat Party.
The Democrats, however, aren't pulling any punches. The leftists have been indicating that the liberal win in New York's 26th district was proof that the Medicare Message is a losing one. But the New York 26 election had nothing to do with Ryan's proposal, and the leftists know it. It is just another one of their tactics. Jane Corwin's loss in New York was the result of a fake Tea Party candidate who siphoned away votes in the three-way race. And the defeat is crushing, to say the least, not because the Democrats are trying to use it as an example of how Medicare Reform is not a winner, but because it happened in what was seen to be a reliable Republican district won less than a year ago by GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, who was trounced statewide by Democrat Andrew Cuomo. But, despite the truth, the Democrats are doing all they can to attack conservative ideas, and so the Democrats have credited Kathy Hochul’s victory in New York 26 to a flood of ads targeting Corwin for supporting the GOP budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan.
The liberal Democrats want you to think that Medicare reform lost. What really won in New York 26 was the typical liberal left tendency to play dirty. They played games, pulled off the win, and now insert the unassociated message that the Republican message was weak, and that supporting Ryan's budget was the GOP candidate's undoing. The Republicans, in turn, fear saying anything, figuring that if they say something it will be attacked too. The liberals have forced the GOP into silence, and it is ridiculous. Screw political correctness, screw fearing the Democrats will twist what you say into something that offended someone, somewhere, and get the messaging out there that NY-26 was a sham, a B.S. split the vote situation, and that Ryan's proposal had nothing to do with it!
Fact is, the Democrats have been doing nothing when it comes to the budget. Theirs was due last year, for God sake, and back then they had a majority. Now, Ryan is taking action, he is actually doing something about it, and the leftists are freaking out. The Democrats have offered no budget, no Medicare proposal. They are a do nothing, except move us towards socialism, party. And the fact is, they have exposed themselves for what they are, and now it is time for Gutsy Republicans, like Paul Ryan, to take charge and expose the leftists for what they are by continuing to propose, and support, conservative legislation. Make the Democrats own up to their idiocy, make them own their socialism, make them reject sound ideas so that the less-informed voters see the liberal Democrats for what they truly are - authoritarian socialists.
The Democrats don't think the Republicans will tackle entitlement reform. They have convinced the establishment Republicans that they will lose votes that way. The Democrat philosophy is to sit back and let the conservative Republicans commit suicide because they think the precious entitlement programs cannot be touched without serious injury to a campaign. In reality, tackling entitlement reform is exactly what is needed. It's a great opportunity for conservative leadership, if the conservatives of the GOP are willing to take up that challenge, if they have the guts to take it to the Democrats.
Understand, it won't be easy. It will take special conservatives to maintain their course through the poison darts of leftist attacks. The liberal left will run attack ads, and use their biased media outlets for attacks at every chance they can muster. This is not the time for weak-kneed establishment Republicans. This is a time for principled conservative Republicans to take the helm. This is a time for leaders to be leaders.
Ryan is taking a stand on fixing this country's fiscal problems. He's going after spending, is working through his budget proposal to solve this debt crisis, to stop the federal government from spending money we don't have.
The Democrats would have you believe that the conservative stance will cost the GOP votes, but the reality is that November 2010 showed us that conservatism wins. Taking conservative positions does not destroy political careers as the liberals would have you think, but enables leaders to rise to the top.
Voters respond well to politicians that act on principles, and do what they think is right to save this country.
The Republicans now own Ryan's proposal, and if they know what is good for them, they will continue to embrace it. Courage, leadership, passion, and belief. That is what Paul Ryan has shown, and the rest of the GOP needs to take notice, and emulate it.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Ryan Hammers His Plan Against Reid; Feels the 2012 Recruitment Heat - Fox News
President's Budget Sinks, 97-0 - The Hill
Get a Grip, Wishy Washy GOP! Dems Pull Off Fraud Win in NY-26 - Rush Limbaugh
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