The Country is up for grabs

[Danno 1,228]

October 28, 2010

'Just Say No!' Pays Off-- The Country Is Up For Grabs

By Patrick J. Buchanan

The polls and pundits are all in alignment now.

The Republican Party is headed for a victory Tuesday to rival the biggest and best of those that the party has known in the lifetime of most Americans.

In 1938, the GOP won 72 seats in the House.

In 1946, Republicans swept both houses and presented Harry Truman with a "fighting 80th Congress" that contained three future presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

In 1966, Republicans picked up 47 House seats to set up the comeback of Nixon, who had led the party out of the wilderness of Goldwater's defeat.

In 1994, the Republican Revolution added 52 House seats and captured both chambers for the first time since Eisenhower's first term.

Looking back on those Republican triumphs, and forward to Tuesday's, what do these Republican off-year victories have in common?

In all four—1938, 1946, 1966 and 1994—the GOP won not because of what the party had accomplished or the hopes it had raised, but because Republicans were the only alternative on the ballot to a Democratic Party and president voters wished to punish.

By 1938, America had had its fill of FDR, as the Depression returned with a vengeance and his aristocratic arrogance became manifest in the crude attempt to purge Democratic senators and pack the Supreme Court with six new justices who'd rubber-stamp his New Deal.

In 1946, Truman was perceived to have been as naive as FDR in trusting "good old Joe" Stalin, who was imposing his murderous Bolshevik rule on 100 million Eastern Europeans and whose Maoist allies were waging war on America's ally in China. What our boys won on the battlefield, our diplomats have frittered away, the country believed.

In 1966, the nation was reacting viscerally to the stalemate in Vietnam, rising casualties, campus disorders, soaring crime, and riots in Harlem and Watts, all seen as the legacy of LBJ's Great Society.

In 1994, it was gays in the military, Hillarycare and the public perception that Bill Clinton was more liberal than he had let on that cost Democrats both houses. The post-election spin that the nation had rallied to Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" was pure propaganda.

Tuesday's election, too, will be no embrace of the GOP, but rather a repudiation of what Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have come to represent. All are seen as power-hungry politicians of an out-of-touch regime that is seizing control of private wealth and private lives as it fails in its duty to win our wars, balance our budgets and secure our borders.

Republicans will be the beneficiaries of this repudiation, as Republicans are, almost everywhere, the only alternative on the ballot, and because they are seen correctly as having opposed the Obama agenda with near drill-team solidarity.

Every Republican in the Senate but Arlen Specter and the ladies from Maine voted against Obama's stimulus bill. Every Republican in the House, save eight, voted no on cap-and-trade. Every Republican on Capitol Hill voted no on Obamacare. More GOP senators opposed Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan than opposed any Supreme Court nominee in memory.

Tuesday, obstructionism reaps its reward.

On Tuesday, the nation, including millions of Obama voters, will come out to empower the Party of No, even as the nation voted in 2006 and 2008 to throw out that party. While many did respond positively to Obama's politics of hope and change in 2008, as they ousted the Republicans, the nation, after Tuesday, will have voted in three straight elections in four years to be rid of its ruling regime.

The United States is starting to look like the French Fourth Republic.

After France lost Indochina, began losing Algeria and was flipping from one premier and one party to another, the call went forth from an exasperated nation to Gen. DeGaulle to come and take charge of affairs.

Consider the critical issue facing America today—the budget and trade deficits, the soaring national debt, an unemployment near 10 percent for 14 straight months—and how neither party seems to have the cure.

While George Bush's tax cuts did not cause this, they did not prevent it. And if Republicans believe that his deficits did cause it, why have those Republicans not addressed the causes of those deficits—Bush's wars, Bush's tax cuts and Bush's social spending on No Child Left Behind and Medicare drug benefits?

Yet, if liberal Democrats are right and deficits are the correct Keynesian cure for recession, why have Obama deficits of $1.4 and $1.3 trillion failed so dismally? Paul Krugman says they are not large enough. Perhaps, but the country is about to end the experiment.

The Federal Reserve, having used and broken every tool in its toolbox, including doubling the money supply and setting interest rates at near zero, will now bet the farm on inflation, starting Nov. 3.

Both parties have lost the mandate of heaven, and neither knows if its economic philosophy even works anymore.

We are in uncharted waters. The country is up for grabs.

http://vdare.com/buchanan/101028_just_say_no.htm

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I predict we will see the largets changeover in our history Tuesday. 76 seats in the house. Thank you Obama. This may be the BEST thing he did for the country.

FYI, Dems controlled the House for two years before Obama was elected. They won it on their own and only Obama could pee all over it.

[Danno 1,228]

I predict we will see the largets changeover in our history Tuesday. 76 seats in the house. Thank you Obama. This may be the BEST thing he did for the country.

FYI, Dems controlled the House for two years before Obama was elected. They won it on their own and only Obama could pee all over it.

Gary you are one of the brave souls who have been putting out your projections in actual numbers.

As their may yet be some fine tuning before you make your final call, post em in your signature line before tues so we can see how close you come.

[TBoneTX 43,018]

Gary you are one of the brave souls who have been putting out your projections in actual numbers.

Agreed, and fearlessly too, si man.

As their may yet be some fine tuning before you make your final call, post em in your signature line before tues so we can see how close you come.

Please do, si man.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Thank goodness all of our problems will be solved starting Wednesday morning. I can hardly wait.

[peejay 327]

I predict we will see the largets changeover in our history Tuesday. 76 seats in the house. Thank you Obama. This may be the BEST thing he did for the country.

FYI, Dems controlled the House for two years before Obama was elected. They won it on their own and only Obama could pee all over it.

I would hope the tide of change would include finally ridding my TX 9th congressional district of the likes of Lefty Congressman Al Green. This election cycle he is actually not running unapposed by a Republican as he has in past elections. A political neophite actually has the audacity to run against him as a Republican this go around, but probably has little or no support from the party because the race is a long shot. Sadly, demographics are against the Republicans (or anyone remotely conservative) in this district. Unfortunately there are too many in my district that love to be drenched in Obama's piss.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Pat should be pensioned off. Every article he writes is stale and turgid.

[Peikko 1,575]

Thank goodness all of our problems will be solved starting Wednesday morning. I can hardly wait.

I know, I'm really excited about this too Imagine, a GOP majority, all those good things they have promised will come true - America will once again be truly American - that is what they promised, right? That and dismantling the federal government, they promised they'd do that too? My taxes are going to go down as well aren't they? Obamacare will be history? All incredibly constructive and useful things that will turn this country around and make the US profitable and great again. :dance:

[Peikko 1,575]

Just out of interest, who is the US DeGaulle, Palin?

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I know, I'm really excited about this too Imagine, a GOP majority, all those good things they have promised will come true - America will once again be truly American - that is what they promised, right? That and dismantling the federal government, they promised they'd do that too? My taxes are going to go down as well aren't they? Obamacare will be history? All incredibly constructive and useful things that will turn this country around and make the US profitable and great again. :dance:

They will keep all of their promises, as they have always done in the past. Nothing to fear there. Your taxes will go down, services will go up, the deficit will be erased and the jobless rate will plummet. We will be up and running like the good old days. I'm thinking it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks or so.

[Peikko 1,575]

They will keep all of their promises, as they have always done in the past. Nothing to fear there. Your taxes will go down, services will go up, the deficit will be erased and the jobless rate will plummet. We will be up and running like the good old days. I'm thinking it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks or so.

To think, in two weeks the US will be shiny again!

[lostinblue 1,989]

All those who are pleased with the direction of the country, vote Democratic. All those who aren't, vote Republican.

The life of the nanny state is often assumed eternal, even when its debts and currency are blatantly unsustainable.Tough times are ahead for this country. The question is who will make it worse.

[Danno 1,228]

Pat should be pensioned off. Every article he writes is stale and turgid.

Maybe, but he is one of the top read columnist.

Care to share the name of one you really like?

Didn't think so.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

And THIS is why I am glad the Dems will lose. The Libertarians need to seize the opportunity of kicking the "established" parties in the teeth. The Dems get theirs now, the Repubs are next. It is about time we say "Enough is enough". The only time we will get any progress is when one party or another must SEEK the co-operation of others and that will never happen if there are only two parties changing the lead. Until then, one will try and force their agenda down the throat of the other and the other will resist.

[mawilson 2,133]

All those who are pleased with the direction of the country, vote Democratic. All those who aren't, vote Republican.

Do NOT vote for Republicans or Democrats.

A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil. Vote independent or be evil.