By Dale Weckbacher:
Proverbs 29:14
The king who judges
the poor with truth,
His throne will be
established forever.
NKJV
Here’s Johnny. For
many years we heard these words after the local evening news. Growing up I remember my dad would stay up to
hear Johnny Carson’s monologue before going to bed. In his monologues, Johnny Carson was an equal
opportunity comedian which means he equally poked fun at all politicians
whether Republican or Democrat. Jay
Leno, who was recently fired from the Tonight Show, was also an equal
opportunity comedian and will be missed.
This week during the debate over the debt ceiling increase,
we were subjected to a different kind of Here’s Johnny with the caving in of
John Boehner. John Boehner promised
during the last spending debate in Congress to fight for decreases in spending
that equal or exceed the proposed raising of the debt limit. (1) Unfortunately, like many promises in
Washington DC, the promise had an expiration date, which is usually one minute
after making the promise.
In addition to following the Boehner rule, Speaker Boehner
promised to abide by the Hastert rule, which states that no bill will be voted
on that does not have support of a majority of the Republicans in the
House. In the recent vote to raise the
debt ceiling, Speaker Boehner also violated his promise to follow the Hastert
rule by allowing a vote on a bill with support from only 28 of 227
Republicans. (2)
What the GOP and Nation lack at this moment is
leadership. Speaker Boehner continually
tells us that there is nothing he can do since the GOP only controls one house
of the Congress and does not control the White House. This is not leadership but surrender. If Boehner were the strong leader he claims
to be he would be going full speed ahead in the Congress opposing the out of
control spending and dare the Senate and Obama to oppose him.
However, Boehner continues to wave the white flag of
surrender in spite of the fact he promised to oppose any debt ceiling increase
without corresponding spending cuts.
Even if the GOP manages to take control of the Senate in this year’s
election, I suspect he will still wave the white flag because he does not
control the White House.
Currently our Olympic Team is competing in the Winter
Olympics in Russia. What makes the
Olympics inspiring to us is it is an opportunity for world-class athletes to
showcase their talents to the world.
Granted many of the athletes attending the games may not win any medals
but each one of them will do their country proud by performing to the best of
their abilities. Shouldn’t we expect the
same from our nation’s leaders?
Our nation needs leaders who like Olympians, are not afraid
to battle even if the odds are against them winning a medal. Granted, Republicans only control one house
of the Congress but I was around in the 80’s when President Reagan had to deal
with Democrat control of both the House and Senate for most of his two
terms. In spite of the odds being
stacked against him, President Reagan managed to get most of his agenda passed
because of his strong and courageous leadership.
Men like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Governor Scott Walker in
Wisconsin, and Governor Jindal in Louisiana have demonstrated strong leadership
in the face of adversity. Imagine either
Ted Cruz or Rand Paul as majority leaders of the Senate along with a Tea Party
Speaker of the House. Then imagine a
strong executive like Scott Walker or Bobby Jindal in the White House. With leadership like this, we can begin to
turn this leviathan around from going over the cliff. We can then place roadblocks in the way by using
article 5 of The Constitution to prevent us from going towards the cliff again.
These next two elections provide an opportunity to restore
strong leadership to our nation.
Leadership with the courage to stand up against those desiring to
fundamentally transform our country into a socialist statist nation and back
into the representative republic our founders envisioned. A nation that supports every citizen’s right
to life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is not too late for our nation but we must begin now to
find true leaders determined to restore and preserve the values and principles
that made this nation great. Starting
with next Saturday’s posting, I will share what I believe constitutes great
leadership. We will then score potential
leaders such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, and Bobby Jindal to see how
they score. I also invite your comments
suggesting other potential leaders and why you believe they qualify as the type
of leader our nation needs right now.
1. Zeleny, Jeff. The Day the Boehner Rule Died.
abcnews.go.com. [Online] ABC News, February 11, 2014. [Cited: February
13, 2014.]
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/the-day-the-boehner-rule-died/.
2. Bernstein,
Jonathan. Hastert Rule Violated, Republicans Happy As Clams. www.bloomberg.com.
[Online] Bloomberg Opinion, February 12, 2014. [Cited: February 13, 2014.]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-12/hastert-rule-violated-republicans-happy-as-clams.html.
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