Democrats, You Did it to Yourselves

Republicans everywhere are celebrating last Tuesday’s election-night results and rightfully so. It was a beat down of historic proportions. The number and margin of victories at the U.S. congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative levels nationwide were all near or over record levels. Yet the massive gains by Republicans in the U.S. Congress come at a time when congressional Republicans have all-time low public approval ratings. Indeed according to Public Policy Polling.com congressional Republicans are less popular with the American people than cockroaches, traffic jams, Brussel sprouts, colonoscopies, used car salesmen, and head lice. (At least you can get rid of lice.) But despite the fact that seemingly nobody can stand them, Republicans walked to massive victories. It speaks directly to what the American people think of the current, massively leftist Democrat agenda that over it they would prefer people they can’t stand.

Democrats run Washington D.C. and at this point everyone knows it. Of the three Capitol Hill bodies (Senate, House of Representatives, Oval Office) Democrats have controlled two out of three or three out of three since 2005. That’s a long time. The failures are starting to mount and the ability to place blame on Republicans, on “the party of no” or cry that it’s because of obstructionism are ringing hollow. The question the American people are asking isn’t, “Who is in control” -- we know who is in control -- but rather, “How have you been governing?” The answer to that question is that the current Democrat party and leadership has been governing against the will of the people not in conjunction with it. Tuesday night Americans said, “Enough.” This is a severe conundrum for hard leftist Democrats like President Obama as what he/they want for the country is not what most Americans want, including registered Democrats. For instance; most Americans are in favor of constructing the Keystone XL pipeline, especially “big labor.” The unions that so heavily favor Democrats desperately want the project approved for the tens of thousands of jobs it means for their dues-paying members. Yet approving the pipeline could mean lower prices at the gas pump, something the president, Democrat leaders, and the environmentalist lobby do not want to see. Higher fuel prices (theoretically) discourages driving and influences consumer auto purchase decisions toward smaller more fuel-efficient cars and away from SUV’s, trucks, and the larger vehicles they are convinced are turning the earth into a giant microwave oven. In this area Democrats are governing against the will of their constituents -- Americans would much prefer $1.89 per gallon gasoline. Most Americans are in favor of securing our southern border. No one believes it a good idea to allow trains, trucks, and busses full of people to come streaming into our nation unfettered. Yet President Obama (in defiance of his oath of office) and his congressional Democrat allies will not lift a finger to do a thing about it. Rather, he has used the Department of Justice to sue states that take it upon themselves to enforce federal laws and the president has repeatedly threatened to “act on his own” to grant amnesty to illegals thus turning our nation into an even bigger illegal immigration magnet than it already is. -- once again placing the president and Democrat leadership in the awkward position of governing against the will of the people. The list of actions falling under the heading of “governing against the will of the people” is growing quite lengthy, and even if not specifically against the people’s will, there are no shortage of failures on the part of Democrat leadership in general (the White House in specific) to point to as reasons for last Tuesday’s shellacking. Foreign policy is a mess, (ISIS running wild, Russia walking into its neighbors' territory, Israel all but abandoned by the USA, etc.), debt is out-of-control, anemic response to Ebola, etc. But there’s no better example of governing against the will of the American people than the "Affordable Care Act", aka "ObamaCare." It’s a lesson from which both parties should learn. The lesson is -- "When you are so in love with your ideals; when getting what you want is more important to you than the will of your constituents; when you think you know best and therefore what the rubes who elected me want or say becomes secondary" -- you're headed for trouble. No poll in America ever placed anything near a majority of Americans in favor of the ACA. Some showed as many as 70% against. Americans never wanted this law, never were in favor of it, pleaded with their representatives not to pass it. Efforts to stop it caused what many thought impossible to happen -- a Senatorial seat vacated by a Massachusetts Kennedy being won by a Republican. Yet our pleas fell upon deaf ears. They fell upon the ears of people more concerned with remaking America than with performing the will of those whom they represent. Big mistake. The 111th Congress gave us H.R. (House Resolution) 3590, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." The bill passed the House of Representatives without a single bipartisan/Republican vote and went on to the upper chamber. The bill passed via a 60-39 vote with all 58 Democrats voting in favor and all 39 Republicans voting against. (Two Independents voted in favor, and one 'did not vote.' The massive bill (the Act and regulations come to a total of 11,588,500 words) was called for a vote of the full assembly of the Senate on December 24, 2009. That's how desperate the President and congressional Democrats were to get this piece of legislation forced into law--they called a vote on Christmas Eve. Well, in life one should be careful what he asks for because you just might get it. In the two elections held since the passing of that law, twenty-five of the Democrat Senators who voted in favor of the "Affordable Care Act" have been handed their walking papers by the American people -- with one more very likely to get hers too in December. Talk about toxic. Forcing through the single largest tax increase in history.

Repeatedly claiming "it isn't a tax" then arguing before the Supreme Court that "it is a tax."

Dictating to American citizens what they must purchase or be fined/taxed/penalized.

Attempting to force churches and religious institutions to act against their belief systems.

Promising “you can keep your doctor/plan” and then cancelling millions of people's policies.

Selling it as costing $900B then constantly upping the number (to a most recent, $2.3T.)

Promising a $2,500 annual household savings but then sending premiums and deductibles skyrocketing. All of this damage done by lying through your teeth in order to do it? Not a good way to govern and none of it the Republican's fault nor the fault of obstructionism. In fact, quite the opposite. Republicans and Tea Partiers tried with all their might to stop the Democrats but were powerless to do so. Democrats, you voted for it. Those votes are impossible to run from and one-by-one your constituents are handing out pink slips. Twenty five in the Senate so far and its likely another round of layoffs may come in 2016. Liberals, your problem isn’t that you couldn’t get your agenda through, it’s that you did. The problem is that your will and desire for reshaping this nation is not shared by your constituents. You have consistently been governing against the will of the people for nine years on an entire litany of issues. Not smart. Last Tuesday was your comeuppance. You did it to yourselves.