Thermometers or Thermostats?

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An alternate title could be, “Act or React.” I read an article this morning in the Washington Times that accurately reflects the state of the GOP. Yes, as expected, if comes down to a confrontation of US vs. THEM.

The ‘US’ in the sentence above is the GOP outside of Washington. The ‘THEM’ is the Washington GOP elite who have lost their goals, focus and independence. All of those elites, at one time or another, espoused conservative viewpoints. However, as soon as they arrived in Washington, those conservative principles fade. Yes, there are a few who still retain those principles, like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and to a lesser extent Rand Paul and Marko Rubio. But more and more, it seems they are the exceptions rather than the rules.

The Washington elite are thermometers. Cruz, Lee, and others are thermostats. Thermometers react. Thermostats act. It’s a major difference.

Conservatives frustrated by GOP’s compromises, lack of leadership

By Ralph Z. Hallow – The Washington Times, Sunday, March 2, 2014

Prominent Republicans see no evidence that their party’s electoral successes have advanced the cause of limited government and moral governance.

“Today, our party’s leaders act like thermometers measuring the temperature of the electorate. We need to be the thermostats and set the temperature,” said Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel, a few minutes’ drive from the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.

For Republicans like Mr. McCoy, who is running for a state Assembly seat, the national party has racked up decades of compromises that have led to relentless government expansion, ever-increasing spending growth, continually mounting national debt and growing intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans.

But it is not solely about the increasing debt, sponsored by both parties. Economist Veronique de Rugy of George Mason University said, “Every president has spent more total real dollars in his last budget than in his first.” She notes.

…Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson increased spending by 38 percent, but George W. Bush, twice elected on a conservative Republican platform, increased spending by 53 percent during his presidency.

“Even Reagan increased total spending by 22 percent” over President Carter, she says on her website. — Washington Times.

The growing trend: spend, spend more, has upset generations of conservatives.  When spending and debt increased geometrically under Obama, no politician, democrat nor republican, escaped scrutiny.

Mrs. Van Etten, an elected Republican National Committee member, rejects the idea that the temperature setters are interested only in blocking action in Washington.

The problem, she said from her Topeka office, is not one of action versus inaction, but that “Republicans [are] being asked to compromise. That implies that we’re meeting the Democrats in the middle. What Republicans are being asked to do is capitulate completely and just give the Democrats everything they want.”

The temperature setters refuse to grant the temperature takers an exclusive franchise on the pragmatic electoral concerns. Oklahoma veterinarian and RNC member Carolyn McLarty contended that the hard-liners’ tactics “have strengthened the base by offering a glimmer of hope that some in Congress have the guts and grit to make a difference.”

Standing fast on principle to block bad legislation no matter the outcome doesn’t automatically conflict with pragmatic goals, said Iowa Republican Party Chairman A.J. Spiker. He insists the Ted Cruz-style filibusters and filibuster threats were not lost causes but rather “much-needed wind in the sails of conservatives.”

Far from voter backlash that the thermometer faction so fears, Missouri Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin said, “Our voters are glad someone is standing up to fight. It is better to fight even when you know you’ll probably lose, because that way our elected Republicans show they take their limited-government promises to voters seriously and are at least taking risks to achieve change.” — Washington Times.

The disconnect between the thermometers and thermostats extend well beyond Washington. The attitude is endemic throughout the GOP at the state and local levels. Fortunately for conservatives, the thermostats, the Tea Party and other grassroots organizations, are, one by one, removing the thermometers at the local and state levels. There are inroads at the federal level as well for Members of the House.

But the Washington view, is a disease that frequently changes thermostats newly arrived in Washington to thermometers. The pressure to ‘go along to get along’ is immense.

My local GOP representative, Vicky Hartzler, is one infected by that disease. She was elected through the efforts of the Tea Party. She ran as a Tea Party candidate and beat long-time democrat representative, Ike Skelton. But soon after she arrived in Washington, Hartzler was advocating near-Trillion Dollar welfare bills masquerading as ag bills. SNAP, aka Food Stamp, comprise nearly 80% of the annual agriculture bill. That is more than $600 Billion dollars in welfare payments. What is Hartzler’s claim to fame in the bill? Removing a $60 Million duplication in a catfish subsidy.

Big Whoop!

Leonard H. Courtney, Lord Courtney, (1832-1918)

Leonard H. Courtney was one of the first to proclaim, “The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Eternal vigilance is always a cost of freedom, whether it is vigilance to insure our national security, to maintain our vigilance against waste, fraud and tyranny by government, or to watch—and replace when required, our representatives in Congress. Vigilance is a duty of all of us, every citizen and voter.

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