Posted by
Andy Zarowny on Sunday, April 05, 2009 7:18:08 PM
As I last left off, in the latter
1990s, the Conservative
movement, led by Newt
Gingrich and his block of
hard-core Republicans,
had some minor success
in rolling back the clutches
of government. But once
they became entangled in
the quagmire of Bill Clinton's
sex scandals, their focus
was undone.
Instead of the folly of the
impeachment hearings,
Gingrich could have used
a bloodied and wounded
Clinton to bring about true
changes in our political
and economic systems.
Real term limits, for example,
which did not allow buffoons
like Barney Frank to be grand-
fathered in their offices.
Equally as important would
have been eliminating our
ridiculously gigantic tax code
and regressive tax system in
favor of a simpler, flat tax.
Personally, I would have
favored a Constitutional
ammendment, adopting the
Swiss notion of stripping
the power to tax away from
Congress altogether, and
lay it in the hands of The
People. There are so many
things that could have been
done. Abolishing the Federal
Reserve and returning us to
‘honest money’, or trashing
the failed institutions, like
the Department of Educa-
tion or Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, which helped
cause our current predica-
ment.
But Newt is not solely to
blame for this failure. He
had a lot of help. Many of
the Republican and Conser-
vative punditry had a hand.
They, too, got caught up
with their fixation against
Clinton. You have to wonder
why they would want to im-
peach him and put Al Gore
in the powerful position as
being a sitting president for
the 2000 election cycle? Was
that really such a bright idea?
NO!!! Of course not! So in-
stead of focusing on doing
some real good, like disassem-
bling seven decades of bloated
government, the GOP wasted
their opportunity. All it accomp-
lished was to victimize both
Bill and Hillary Clinton, and set
the stage for a backlash
against the Republicans and
Conservatives. This then
caused what became known
as the Era of “Kinder Conser-
vativism.
George W. Bush was another
lesser of two evils. Another
‘stopped clock’ who was cor-
rect on occasion. Sure, I was
as glad as anybody that he
happened to be president
when we were attacked on
9/11. I shudder to think how
Al Gore would have reacted.
But, Bush did make numerous
blunders. And I’m not talking
about Iraq, though that was not
handled properly. In his at-
tempts to be the face of a
“Kinder Conservative”, Bush
opened the door on more
Federal government involve-
ment in education and health
care. He also went along with
the ouster of a key ‘gatekeeper’
of liberty, Trent Lott. Bush
threw him under the bus for
a gaff that is mild compared
to those made by Obama and
his gang.
Some much energy of the
Conservative movement was
expended in defending our
war against Islamic fascism
and Bush’s policies that the
GOP continued to embrace
the notion of running more
moderates. Whatever prin-
ciples they had in 1994 were
long gone by 2004. The
Democrats were able to put
themselves into position to
retake both wings of the
Congress in 2006.
The immigration act which
Bush and ‘The Old Fraud’,
John McCain, tried to get
passed put the last nails in
the coffin. Bush lost all
credibility by this point. His
budgets were getting larger,
deficits growing. While he
did, with McCain’s help,
bring about The Surge to
finally win the war in Iraq,
the die was cast. 2006 set
the stage for the Democrats
to win back the White House.
Stay tuned for Part 3, as we
watch Rush Limbaugh and
Ann Coulter, along with many
other Conservative gate-
keepers, hand the country
over to Barack Obama and
condemn us to Socialism.