The Great Uniter
While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama said he would “turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington” and pass a bipartisan agenda in Congress. Instead, Congress set records last year (2011) for just how polarized it has become.*
By Stan Welch
I had the opportunity to spend some time with both our Congressmen, Jeff Duncan, and Senator Jim DeMint during the last week. Both men are home while Congress is in recess, and as they usually do, both are spending time touring their stomping grounds and meeting people.
Congressman Duncan and I spoke last Thursday, sitting under one of the picnic shelters at the Mineral Spring park, on a beautiful fall day. It was the day after the first Presidential debate and that’s what I opened the interview with.
The Congressman seemed very pleased and perhaps a bit surprised at the Mitt Romney he and America had seen the night before. Talk turned quickly to the elections; and the Congressman wasted no time in topping my own prediction that, despite all the polls, I thought Romney would win by six to eight points.
Rep. Duncan disagreed and shocked me by predicting a double digit margin of victory for the Republican candidate. Both the margin and the Congressman’s willingness to predict it openly took me aback. Of course, Congressman Duncan is no shrinking violet, and has always answered questions boldly and straightforwardly.
He evoked memories of an earlier time when he said that he believed there is a large and silent majority who fear for the nation’s future if a second term is won by President Obama. “I truly believe those people will make their voices heard, and that November 7 will mark a new day for America.”
A few days later, on Monday, I was with Senator DeMint as he toured a manufacturing plant in Piedmont. He was a bit more cautious in his numbers, but was confident that the White House would return to Republican occupation.
He also said he thought the chances of capturing a majority in the Senate were a little better than fifty/fifty. “I just don’t believe the American people want Harry Reid to be the head of the Senate for another four years based on his leadership for the last four.”
Never have I wanted any politician to be right more than I do on this topic.
I must admit to some confusion on my part about this campaign. I hear commentators and pundits and politicians grinding policy details between their jaws as if those are the point. They are not the point.
The point is this. Will America, built on levels of financial, personal and political freedoms unprecedented before our creation and unparalleled since, continue to lead the world to a better life, or will we slide back into the clutches of the Europe from which we fled three hundred years ago?
Will we pursue life, liberty and happiness, or accept a mediocre and deadening world of government that gives us everything but allows us nothing? Will we choose insulation against failure at the cost of surrendering the opportunity to succeed beyond our wildest dreams?
Will we cede our place of primacy and leadership to governments or movements that would choke the life from freedom as soon as they can get their hands around its neck?
Is that really why we have sent millions of our fellow Americans into harm’s way over the centuries? To sit by and watch as tyrant states like Iran and its puppet, Syria, drag the world back a millennium, where Mohammed is comfortable.
Mr. President, you have been the greatest failure that America has ever seen enter the White House. A complicit media has protected you from the consequences of your actions. They are trying to protect you still. It seems to me that you have finally succeeded in uniting the people, as you promised.
*Quoted from Politifact.com
