Opinion - Lesser of Two Evils

Lesser of two evils

That’s My Opinion

By Bob Robinson

The 2010 midterm election conservative pundits are burning up cyberspace.

They don’t say so, but they are probably throwing parties and giving each other “high fives.” While there is undeniable partisan “crowing” in the dark recesses of Congress, I hope they show at least a little restraint due to the suffering of so many at the hands of their recently elected savior.

Dick Morris, who interestingly enough was a strategist for former Democratic President Bill Clinton, is predicting the biggest GOP takeover in history… even bigger than the 1994 Contract with America that gave Congress to Republicans.

The Gallup generic ballot poll shows Republicans with the largest lead over Democrats – 10 points – in the 68 years the poll has existed. Rasmussen shows a 7-point generic lead and growing.

Pres. Barack Obama’s approval rating has been in the negative double digits for months. His only real accomplishment since he took office is Obamacare, and the majority of Americans feel it will raise their premiums, further damage the economy and they want it repealed.

Left wing New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has deserted Obama, saying the stimulus programs ain’t working. That was paraphrased of course.

Dems in statewide races, many of them purportedly ‘Blue’ shoe-ins, are said to be running for the hills when Obama offers to help them in their re-election efforts. A few cartoonists have had a lot of fun with that one.

Another life-long Dem, Chuck Green, wrote a scathing editorial against Obama, accusing him of blaming his predecessor for his own ineptness.

Then there’s the recent Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" Rally in Washington. Pat Buchanan noted that hundreds of thousands were there.

While we often hear from our leader – or one of his press people when he and his wife are on vacation – his Democratic colleagues and pundits are strangely silent.

“The majority is very, very worried,” a Washington insider said recently.

And as a reader noted to me, “it’s going to be an interesting November.” It’s one that will likely change the face of Washington.

That’s good for Republicans. It remains to be seen if it’s good for the people.

When I tossed my hat in the ring last year as a candidate for Darke County Commissioner, I announced as a Republican, but campaigned as a traditional conservative.

Unfortunately, in recent years those terms have been contradictory. If I was going to run, I was going to run as the kind of Republican I tried to vote for in the past.

I was hopeful when I voted for Ronald Reagan. And when I voted Republican in 1994, I was hopeful that the party would keep its promise to reduce Big Government, cut spending and wipe out welfare.

Reagan delivered. And the “Contract” Republicans delivered for a while. Then they got comfortable and, slowly but surely, they slipped into many of the patterns that got the other ‘majority’ into trouble years earlier.

The balance shifted in 2006. And by 2008, people were disgusted. It was a golden opportunity for an unbelievably charismatic orator to sweep the nation off its feet and, in turn, get swept into the highest office in the land.

We didn’t care what he stood for. He promised “Hope & Change.” He gave us clues, but we weren’t listening; and those who should have told us, didn’t.

I’m not sure it would have made any difference.

Now we’ve seen the reality of “Hope & Change,” and have discovered it was an unrealistic pipe dream from someone with no concept of how an economy works, or anything else for that matter. He’s a textbook example of the “Ivory Tower” mentality of eggheads who have spent their lives pontificating behind the cloaks of their university tenure.

We are more disgusted now than we were two years ago.

So do we blindly vote for a new “Hope & Change?” Probably. I think it’s a done deal in Washington, and in many states facing similar catastrophic futures, such as Ohio.

But have lessons been learned?

Will those we elect make the hard choices? Will they deal with cavernous government appetites for more and more of our money? Will they deal with the bureaucratic institutions that kill the American dream for millions of small businesses across the country? Will they pass legislation to get Big Brother the hell out of our lives!!!

If you pay attention, you know that most Americans are fed up with government, period! Red or Blue, they don’t care. They don’t believe that either party cares a lick about them.

Will they be proven wrong when the new Congress convenes in January? Or the new government convenes in Columbus?

I hope so. We desperately need those who represent us to actually represent us.

For years I’ve had to vote for the lesser of two evils. This November I’ll, once again, be hopeful. I pray that I won’t be disappointed.

That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Bob Robinson is the retired editor of The Daily Advocate, Greenville, Ohio. If you wish to receive a daily notification of his comments, opinions and reports, send your email address to: opinionsbybob@gmail.com. Feel free to express your views.