Guest Opinion/Commentary*

Monday, November 9, 2009

An Open Letter To Mr. Glenn Beck
  Politics piece by Guest: C.E. Cole

First, I hope that your bout with appendicitis has ended with total restoration to good health and that the involuntary rest has re-energized you for the coming battles you need to keep fighting in unmasking the hypocrisy and nefarious deeds of the Obama Administration and their aiders and abettors in Congress.  In this regard, you have done yeoman’s work on your radio show and on your nightly TV show on the Fox News Channel.  Keep up the good work!  You are providing a badly needed service to our republic at a crucially important time in our history.

The aforementioned having been said, I reluctantly must pick one rather substantial bone with you.  Hopefully you will take this as constructive criticism, as I sincerely intend. My problem concerns your frequent claim that both major political parties must share equally in the blame for our current dilemma and your ongoing assertion that there is, in effect, precious little difference between the two major parties.

Frankly, that hypothesis might make sense to those too young to remember the longstanding attempts of conservative Republican leaders in Congress to caution the nation about the folly of ceding increasingly more and more power to the federal government.  However, at my advancing age, I remember these things all too well and can testify under oath as to what I saw with my own eyes.  As long as the Republican Party remained faithful to the principles on which our republic was founded – individual responsibility, limited government, minimal taxation, the rule of law, and the defense of liberty here and abroad – they deserved the support of the American people, even if they didn’t always get it. 

Sadly, too many Americans were more interested in achieving life on easy street than doing their civic duty.  This gave rise to the RINO phenomenon – the Republican in Name Only.  Gradually this malaise crept into the GOP and morphed into what I call the phenomenon of the “Democrat Lite”.  On this point, you are correct, Mr. Beck.  Too many Republicans did succumb to the temptations of the corruption of the ruling elite, leading them to stray from their founding principles.  You are also correct in saying that this can only be corrected from within the ranks of the Republican Party itself.  This will take a concerted effort on the part of a large number of genuinely conservative Republicans who must demand that this party right itself from within.   

As a sign that this idea may be taking root, I would refer you to the summation given by the Minority Leader, Republican Congressman John Boehner of Ohio, at the conclusion of the debate on the “health care” bill Saturday night.  In fact, if you have some time to spare, you might listen to the entire debate.  If both parties are, as you have often stated, equally contemptible, please tell me why virtually every Republican who spoke during this marathon event seemed to echo your rebuttal to the moronic platitudes of the left in “Arguing With Idiots”, and why virtually every Democrat who spoke was evoking those very platitudes in their remarks. 

Please also note the record vote on final passage of the infamous “health care” bill.  If Republicans are equally as bad as Democrats, how is it that 85% of the Democrats voted on record (i.e. in the name of their constituents) in favor of this effort to drastically expand the power of the federal government, whereas 99.5% of the Republicans voted against this monstrosity.  Again, these are record votes, in contradistinction to political rhetoric. 

Did the Beltway insiders of the Republican establishment lead the party astray during the Bush years?  Yes.  Should elected Republican officials have remained faithful to the party’s founding principles?  Of course.  Did they (and the American people) pay for these failings?  Absolutely.  Hopefully they have learned from those failures and from the recent Scazzafava – Hoffman debacle in New York.  Only time will tell, but the record votes of Republican congressmen on Cap and Trade and the “health care” bill are encouraging signs.

I would urge you not to make the perfect the enemy of the good.  One of the graphs you drew on your blackboard on TV seemed to show that beginning around 1910 the lines of both parties trended in a parallel fashion toward “progressivism”.  I would respectfully refer you to the period between 1923-1929, i.e. the last time this country has had a genuinely conservative president and conservatives in the majority of both houses of Congress. 

You would do well to review the record of this rather amazing decade.  In the Political Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (by Dr. Robert Murphy), the results of conservative governance are highlighted from the historical record for all to see.  Sadly, the American people have not tried that combination (conservative president with a conservative congress) since, resulting in what we see now.

In conclusion, I would respectfully request that you review your assessment of the relative culpability of the two major political parties in light of the historical record and as reflected in the current battles being waged in Washington these days.  I trust that you will conclude that a conservative Republican renewal is the last best hope of this great nation so many of us love so much.

C.E. Cole
Cleveland, Ohio

Posted by Guest: C.E. Cole on 11/9/09

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