The Patriot Post® · Charlie Brown Redux

By Michael Oberndorf ·
https://patriotpost.us/commentary/9643-charlie-brown-redux-2011-04-18

Many of you remember how in the old Charles Schultz comic strip, “Peanuts,” for years and years, Lucy would coax Charlie Brown into kicking the football while she held it. And every year, she would pull it away at the last minute, and Charlie Brown would go flying through the air, and crash to the ground, flat on his back. Well folks, Charlie Brown ain’t got nothin’ on Republicans. Every election year, the Republican “leadership” and all the candidates swear that this time they’ll spend less, reduce the size of government, and uphold the Constitution. And every year, the hapless voters stand there aghast as spending hits new records, government grows like a metastasizing cancer, and the Constitution is used as a doormat.

This most recent debacle must indeed be the last. We stood helplessly by as the Republican “leadership,” i.e., Sun Tan Boehner, Mitch McConnell, et al., caved on cutting a mere $100 billion out of a $3.5 trillion Democrat budget, backing down to only $68 billion. Then, to avoid a virtually meaningless shutdown of the federal government, when the Democrats refused to go along with this miniscule, largely symbolic cut, “compromised” down further to $38 billion. The final outrage – and for me, I mean final – pulled by the Republican “leadership” is that the supposed $38 billion in cuts in reality amounts to only a third of a billion dollars; a lousy $350 million out of $3.5 trillion.

I cannot express how furious I am over this. We have been lied to repeatedly and without apology. We have been taken for suckers and used shamelessly. One expects this sort of behavior from the Marxist Democrats and B. Hussein Obama-Soetoro, but not from purported conservatives.

By the way, the public and off-the-record remarks from the Vulgar Fool in the White House have been offensive beyond belief. Had they been uttered by a commoner, they very likely would have touched off a brawl. My blood boils every time these wastes of food, who are paid three times what I make plus tens of thousands in expenses, tell me I need stop being so extravagant and to pay more taxes, because they want to spend even more…but I digress.

Only about 20 of the 50 “Tea Party candidates” elected in 2010 voted to cut the budget, and only 15 senators. I suspect the actual number of senators is really 13, since Lindsey Graham and Orin Hatch likely voted against it knowing it would easily pass anyway, but now they can tell the voters, “See? We really are conservatives.”

We would all benefit from looking over the list of congressmen who voted against the budget, for these are all that stands between American republican government, as we used to know it, and the neo-fascism being forced upon us by the Reid/Pelosi/ Obama-Soetoro/Soros cabal. These apparently genuine conservatives need all the support and encouragement we can give them, whether it be time or money. We also need to make sure that our Tea Parties get stronger, and that the candidates we put forward next election cannot be co-opted by anyone.

Among this group of stalwarts, not surprisingly, is retired Lt. Col. Allen West (R-FL). Every time I hear him speak, I am very impressed with his forthright, honest, intelligent, and fearless conservatism. It must have been a pleasure to have served under him, as he clearly is a leader of the first order. His speeches and remarks in debates and forums are unrehearsed, and often brilliant. His grasp of world politics is formidable, and his understanding of economic issues leaves, as far as I can see, nothing to be desired. He’s also on the right side of social issues.

Recently, a grassroots move to get him to run for president has sprung up, and I fully support this. Of all the people running, and some are pretty good, he strikes me as the most competent and uncorruptable. So, let’s sum up: unabashedly conservative, patriotic, honest, uncorruptable, intelligent, an experienced leader, well versed in geopolitics and economics, not a professional politician, pro-capitalist, pro-American, pro-Constitution, and understands Islamic extremism for the threat that it is. He is, in short, the antithesis – that’s “the opposite,” for those of you unfortunate enough to have gone to government schools – of the usurper currently occupying the White House.

The latest rumor is that Trump wants him to be his running mate. I think Col. West is smarter than that. He is presidential material, and I am inclined to think he could win on his own, with, of course, some help from We, the People.