Saturday, January 31, 2009

Solidarity from the Right

There seems to be a misconception that as Republicans, we don't care about the poor. It has even been postulated that we hate them.

Generalizations and spin are wonderful things aren't they?

Given the recent events in the House regarding the Stimulus Bill, we are now seen by some as hateful sore losers.

Not so.

What we are doing is protesting a bill that we have almost no faith in. If we don't believe that something will work, why shouldn't we vote against it? It has nothing to do with the poor other than the fact that we think this bill will hurt everyone, including the poor.

When we tried to debate and compromise, we received the admonition from Obama that, "I won. I'll trump you on that."

Trump all you like, Mr. President, we will still not vote for that which we do not agree with.

If we seem like sore losers with this action, well perhaps you might consider your own words or thoughts over the last eight years:

"Our party is weak."

"We are too busy infighting to stand up a real opposition."

"We just can't get it together."

I will not cite any articles here for any of these statements as I have heard them from so many sources both in person and on the internet that I doubt the necessity.

So when, in the face of its first real opposition from a new administration, my party stands up to the challenge and presents a united front so loud and clear that it affects the
public approval of this measure, don't be surprised. It even affected the outlook of Sen. Ben Nelson D-Neb:

“I don’t even know how many Democrats will vote for it, as it stands today.”

It's only a protest. Sort of like the ones you occasionally indulge in, only without the effigy-burning, the hilariously ironic signs, and the bumper-sticker bullhorns. We inherently know the only thing that really matters; votes.

The Left has for decades touted quite highly a condition that we, the Right, recently displayed with great success and effectiveness:

Solidarity.

Now we wait while the Senate confers over the wisdom of this bill. I hope that the GOP in that body can perform as admirably or better.

What do I mean by "better"?

A real compromise, a dramatically smaller price-tag, less special interest spending, more stimulus, tax-cuts, you know, something that we could get behind.

Then we could all be "Solidaritized" together. Wouldn't that be nice?


H/T: The Weekly Standard and Hot Air