“President Obama! We are forever in your debt!”
“Abortion is not healthcare!”
“Distribute my work ethic!”
“I only own a dollhouse and already I’m $36,000 in debt!”
“Give me Liberty, not Debt!”
Those were just some of the expressions of exasperation seen on signs in August as hundreds of thousands of American citizens marched on Washington. Some leaders in the Republican Party took that massive outpouring as a hopeful sign they can regain power. So they are busy in many states “helping” that to happen.
And they are “helping” by anointing candidates of their choosing, whose voting records are appalling, but who wear the GOP’s elephant moniker and are therefore granted absolution. The party gives them status and endorsements, seeming to care little about the people of the state but only of their desperate grab for a return to power.
It is scandalous and it must be exposed. For Republican powers in Washington and in state Capitols to usurp the primary process and the will of the people to choose candidate insiders who will push harmful policies to rebuild the power base is shameful.
Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois is Exhibit A. He was only one of seven Republican congressmen to vote for the cap and trade bill—legislation that will be the death knell for the Illinois industrial base and lay a burden on the state’s citizens they can hardly bear. Yet Mark Kirk is “the man” according to the Republican Senate Campaign Committee that allocates money and resources to prospective candidates. Several Illinois congressmen now salute and endorse Mark Kirk … citizens be damned. He is a Republican, after all. He’s their friend and they think he can win.
Congressman Mark Kirk is an abortion advocate … a champion of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Kirk is so radical he voted in favor of the most heinous method of the procedure—partial birth abortion. Pro-life Republican congressmen are lining up to endorse Kirk … trashing their personal convictions for the sake of power because he is, after all, a Republican from inside the Beltway.
Congressman Kirk is an advocate of radical homosexual rights. Citizens may wonder why—and they should ask him. It is one thing to oppose discrimination, quite another to be an advocate. Hate crimes have been the precursor to hate speech laws in Canada, Britain and elsewhere. The end game? Homosexuals get superior rights in criminal prosecution while citizens objecting to homosexuality on moral grounds, pastors included, are punished. Hate crimes laws are unnecessary under the equal protection clause and dangerous to free speech. But Mark Kirk is an insider Republican, so party leaders turn their backs on people of faith and traditional values while they empower him to continue advocating these misguided policies to gain power for themselves and the party.
The irony of the Republican Party trying to fill Barack Obama’s old Senate seat with a pro-cap and trade, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, anti-second amendment rights, anti-military surge in Iraq Republican is not lost on us.
The massive protest in Washington was not a cheering session for returning Republicans to power, regardless of their positions on important issues. Marchers want their country back … period. Bad policies that translate to harm for our children and country aren’t somehow less painful because they come from Republicans. People want good governance and wise leaders who can recapture the motivation to serve for the good of all, not wield power for their own advancement.
Good news for the people of Illinois: There’s an excellent candidate on the rise. Patrick Hughes is a young business and family man with a strong sense of ethics and morality, committed to smaller government, lower taxes and the Second Amendment; an enemy of cap and trade and abortion—and the people of Illinois, in spite of Washington and Springfield, are getting behind him. Virtually every conservative leader in the state including Phyllis Schlafly has endorsed him. According to a recent poll, 69 percent of Republican primary voters are very conservative. Patrick Hughes is raising money rapidly. He can win. And Mark Kirk could easily lose.
To his credit, RNC Chairman Michael Steele has seen the handwriting on the wall and removed his endorsement of Mark Kirk. It was a very wise move. Let the people of Illinois decide who we want to represent us. We are deeply unimpressed with the current elephant in Lincoln’s once great room.