cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
In April, 2010, I wrote the following words
Shortly thereafter, the congressional minority party began campaigning on the platform, “Repeal and Replace“. As-if… This is the party we elected in 2000 on promises to privatize social security. After six years in power, instead of privatizing social security, they gave us No Child Left Behind, The Patriot Act and Medicare Part-D. After the congress changed control, the same president gave us TARP and Auto-Maker bailouts. With that track record, does anyone really believe they’re going to repeal the Intolerable Act of 2010? Not likely.
We need to remember that all politicians respond to incentives. The incentives for the Washington republicans in this situation are to give the plausible appearance of trying to repeal it, without actually getting it done. That way, they get reelected and they get to keep their new-found power too. Incentives work in our favor at the state level, but not in Washington.
Looking at the (R) primary field that has been shaping for the 2012 presidential election during the last couple of months, I have been reminded of those words frequently. From the “main stream” republican press, and even many tea parties, we hear that defeating Obama is paramount. Nothing else matters. And hardly a word about repealing the Intolerable Act of 2010. Call me cynical, but (without naming names) there’s only one candidate who I honestly believe will act to repeal… and in reality, according to intrade.com, that candidate is not likely to win.
I hope I was wrong when I wrote those words, but in preparation for the possibility that they turn out to be correct, I want to float a couple of rhetorical questions. What is the point of defeating Obama if his policies are left in place? What do we do if the GOP establishment stabs us in the back, again!, the way President Bush did, with his big-government policies? When do we stop throwing good votes after bad? Is this all there is? Voting for people who (we hope) will drive us into collapse more slowly than the other ones? When do we finally stand up and say that we will not be ruled by the left branch or the right branch of the big-government party?
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