Remember these names:
Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, Senator James Imhofe of Oklahoma, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Senator James Risch of Idaho, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, and finally, not voting, but present, former Senator Jim DeMint.
Of course, next week many others in the United States House of Representatives will step forward, and cross this same line in the sand as these men and women…
…sending a shot heard round the world, but more importantly, a shot heard by every citizen, EVERY American citizen, that the game for independence is back on.
Nothing will be same. A new dynamic has been injected into that dried up old town. Senator Cruz and his “green eggs and ham” readings will go down in history…but caution, that history written by whoever wins what will follow. Ted Cruz, at least, knows that. He staked out a position from which he cannot retreat—just as Senator John McCain and Mitch McConnell staked out positions from which they cannot retreat. Washington is now a “Liberty, fer it or agin’ it” town, the Republican Party a “Liberty, fer it or agin’ it” party.
Laisser les bons temps rouller!
At least one Democrat has a sense of the true magnitude of what these 19 senators have done. Sen Tom Harkin said in essence “It hasn’t been this bad since 1860″.
Of course Sen Harkin made his comment in mock regret, but his heart was quivering with fear. I echo what Sen Harkin said, only saying, “‘Bout damned time.”
After five years of pleading and pawing at the ground for the Republicans to “do something,” finally, some have.
The struggle for the true Republican Party and its brand, the Doctrine of Liberty, has finally come out into the open…
…and this time, the people will be directly involved, not only as voters, mind you, but as a part of management, if they will only look further into the Precinct Project. As you know, I’ve always worked the other side of the street, preferring the rolled up newspaper approach to taking back government, but I have to admit, there are a lot more tables to turn over in Republican precinct meetings than there are out on the open streets.
Just choose your fight and get into it, for these 19 senators have assured us that there will be one, and that it will be out in the open.
So if you must read the New York Times and Washington Post, and all those stories about how Cruz has ruined himself, or “been destroyed” (Glenn Beck actually said this, as if he were giving last rites at a Viking funeral), first ask yourself why Democrats and the Left would so want to prevent a fight that might finally dismember the Republican Party, unless they want to protect the controlling wing of it?
Call it Red on Purple, for while the Dems are not the direct target they have a big interest in the outcome. There is some blood kinship there.
Dems spew their bile because they are quaking in their boots, for they know that these 19 senators and the House members who will join them next week will be representing fully 60% of the American people…that’s right, 60%, including a lot of moral, working, and going broke, Democrats. Not only can the Republican Party be reshaped into what it once was, but the Left’s whole house of cards can come tumbling down as well, and they know it.
These few men and women can cause a complete realignment in American politics, and in fairly short order, if they don’t lose sight of the prize. It’s like a game of touch football, the Reds and Purples, that has been played for years in a sandlot by sandlot rules. Then one team starts getting rougher and rougher, shoving and pushing, biting and gouging, knocking people down. Flagrant fouls.
So a few new kids on the sideline come into the game and say, “OK, then, let’s play tackle. But let’s choose up sides all over again.”
Suddenly, all the beefy, burly kids who were too slow to play before line up to get in, too. And they want to play for our captains, not Girlie-Man’s. Fox switches sides again. Twice. Maybe three times. In fact, there’s a lot of back and forth, for a lot of people not used to having to stake out a position and defend it are uncomfortable with going back to the original game rules in the first place. They don’t know whether to play tight end or go blind. Speed and agility will still matter, but spindly little legs and jug ears aren’t nearly as effective as they once were. Raw people power will matter more
This is how it will play out.
Game on, and there’s no going back.
I hope the Valiant 19 are wise enough to understand the implications of what they have done. You can’t sever relations with your king and then go back to your castle and wait for him to come punish you. (Barbara Tuchman taught us that. It’s not only unwise and unproductive, it is French.) You must gird yourselves for the coming battle, and carry that battle forward, knowing that you will pick up new converts and soldiers at an alarming rate. Alarming, I said. No more polite handshakes, warm smiles, and no more joining a foursome on Saturday. Leave the catcalls and icy glares for them (and me). Instead, adopt that look men use when having to shoot their wounded horse; the jutted chin of resolve. Learn to exude the flared eyes of a person confident inside his own skin instead of the apologetic furtive glances we’ve had to endure for too many years.
Turn the temperature down in the Congress. In fact, turn it into a meat locker.
And then let Harry moan and groan on behalf of his “good friends across the aisle.” Let John McCain keep turning over his office desk, and throwing lamps, you just keep quietly turning the temperature down, and I promise, the American people will turn over more tables in your name than you ever dreamt of.
So don’t sound an alarm about the cloture vote. Ring the bells of victory, as the churches did after Waterloo, for a big victory was begun this week in the United States Senate.
PTG