Let me suggest you read Oliver Cromwell’s speech to the rump Parliament of April 20, 1653. I can’t reproduce all of it in this article, but here are a few choice selections:
“Ye are a factious crew, and enemies of all good government…Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there not one vice you do not possess?...Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God…Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You [who] were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed are yourselves become the greatest grievance…Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves, be gone!...In the name of God, go!”
If only Cromwell were here today to speak to our Congress, which has become everything he said about the rump Parliament, and worse. Every word he spoke rings true.
I would like to narrow the focus, however, to the Republican Party leadership and much of the GOP's Congressional delegation. They are an accomplice to Congress’s depravity, and well fall under the condemnation of Cromwell’s words.
Ronna McDaniel has been making her case, even on Townhall, to remain as RNC chair. She has every right to try to convince a rather skeptical conservative audience. So far, I perceive she is batting about .000 among the party’s base. She hasn’t convinced me, either.
I spent most of my working career as a teacher, and I was a pretty good one, I think, because the great majority of my students were successful and passed my classes. However, if I taught for several years, and most of my efforts produced failing students, I trust I would have enough wisdom and concern for my students to realize that maybe I wasn't very good at that job, and thus should not take the money of those who were paying me, that I should move on and find something I was better adapted to doing.
I would hope Ronna McDaniel would make the same decision about being RNC chair. Obviously, she likes people knowing who she is, the fame, attention, and power it gives her. But she needs to know that this isn't about her. It is about the American people and saving our country. We need good, solid, conservative, God-fearing people in office. The Democrats are certainly not going to give us those people; it's up to the Republican Party to do it. McDaniel hasn't been doing that, and we need somebody who will. I hope, for the good of the country, she will have the graciousness to step down and let someone else try to do what she has failed to do. I have no faith that she will do that, of course, but we will find out exactly what kind of person Ronna McDaniel really is.
No one likes to fail, or to admit it. It takes a person of great character to do so. But sometimes it is necessary to do so, especially when the well-being of others is at stake. Politicians, however, are the absolute worse at confessing to their own failures.
As many have noted in various publications, McDaniel’s tenure as head of the RNC since 2017 has not been notable for success. The disastrous 2018 midterms. The loss of the Presidency and Senate in 2020. Run-off elections last year and this year that failed to produce victory. The less-than-expected performance in this year’s midterms against an extremely disliked, vulnerable opponent. To put it mildly, the party base has not been happy with her, or other Republican “leaders” in Washington.
Now, I don’t know how much of this disaster is Ronna McDaniel’s fault. I’m not privy to, nor knowledgeable of, these kinds of things, the inner workings of a political party, how success in elections is achieved, and so forth. I’m very ignorant about this stuff, and I suspect most Americans are as well. All I can see is the results. And the results have not been good. I don’t know anything about coaching an NFL football team, either, but I do know that, if a team has repeated losing seasons, year after year, there will eventually, and soon, be a coaching change. Usually, the losing head coach has to be fired; he rarely leaves of his own volition. But success is demanded by those who pay his salary, and they will replace him if he doesn’t win.
You don’t reward failure. Except, apparently, in politics.
Ronna McDaniel is emblematic of the very thing wrong with Washington, D.C.: people who have miserably failed the country, but are too in love with themselves and the power they hold to give it up, even when it is obvious they are horribly mismanaging their responsibilities. As long as they are in the limelight, as long as they are in the news, as long as they are well-known, as long as they please the Washington establishment, they don’t care if they are successful or not. Destroying the country is totally immaterial to them. That doesn’t matter one bit, because it isn’t about the country, it’s about THEM, their ego, their popularity. They are getting the attention and notice their over-sized egos crave, country be damned.
Everybody wants to be popular. I was kind of ugly and klutzy when I was in high school, and had ten thumbs when it came to dealing with girls. So, needless to say, I wasn’t very popular. But I wanted to be. We all did and do. Politicians lust for it, so desperately they will do almost anything to get it. And keep it. And they will not give it up, unless forced to, even if they are running an entire nation into bankruptcy, depravity, and destruction. Witness Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, and 500+ more.
Plus Ronna McDaniel.
Ronna, I’m sure you are a very nice lady. But, “in the name of God, GO!”
Don’t miss out on some good American reading from the good ol’ days. My western novels, Whitewater and River Bend, are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. A third western, Allie’s Dilemma, is available for Kindle only. And read some different posts on my blog at thailandlewis.blogspot.com.