Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

Some of the biggest critics of Republicans lately have been other Republicans. You’d expect the Democrats to trash Republicans, as that is what they are really adept at, but why do Republicans have to act like Democrats? That’s a little disconcerting with this Republican.

Most all the Republican members of the House were elected in their constituency by pledging the voters to defund or repeal Obamacare (a/k/a the (Un)affordable Care Act), and when they try to follow up on their promises, other Republicans “back bite” them and call them names. You’d expect that from the Democrats, but from their fellow Republicans?

We all know politicians are always interested in their next election or re-election, and we would expect that their “gunfire” would be directed at their Democrat or Republican opponents, but when they turn on their own, it hurts the brand and their barbs are then used by the Democrats to attack the Republicans (this is what happened to Mitt Romney).

Let’s look at what happened in the last presidential election. Our candidate, Mitt Romney, a conservative Republican, was not conservative enough for some Republicans. The turnout by the conservative base was “lukewarm“, to say the least. The turnout was definitely less than expected. Look what happened, we now are saddled with 4 more years of our “Liar in Chief”, the incompetent Barack Hussein Obama. Do those “lukewarm” Republicans, who didn’t come out to vote, feel that they are better off with Obama at the helm instead of Romney? We could’ve had a chance to defund Obamacare (as Romney wanted to get rid of it), but now we have to watch that monstrosity play havoc with our economy and our health care. Under a Romney presidency, we’d be exploring for all our energy resources and would’ve put the Keystone pipeline on line (thus creating many thousands of jobs), and we would’ve had a more civilized society as compared to how Obama has handled things.

Because Romney wasn’t 100% of what some of his Republican opposition thought he should be, it seems that “they cut off their noses to spite their faces”, and we are all now suffering the consequences of their inaction. We were our own worst enemy in this case of not coming out to vote for Romney.

Wasn’t it Ronald Reagan who said that Republicans should observe the 11th Commandment, “Thou should not speak ill of another Republican”? It was stated that the “Commandment” never meant that one Republican could not criticize the policies or philosophies of another Republican, it meant only that one could or should not engage in a personal attack on another Republican.

Just recently, during the debt ceiling debate and the government shutdown, Republicans who should know better, like Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsay Graham, Sen. Bob Corker, and Rep. Peter King, use obvious personal attacks against other Republicans. Ronald Reagan must be turning over in his grave? Differences can and should be expressed or discussed between Republicans, but in private, not in public.

This episode was a perfect example of Republicans shooting themselves in the foot and of being our own worst enemy. Let’s hope we can get our act together for the 2014 mid-term elections. Our country desperately needs a Republican House and Senate, we don’t need another Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid during Obama’s last two years.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann