As I move around the area, I find that many people are fed up with politicians who go to Washington, D.C., (or to Raleigh for that matter) and don’t do what they say they will do. And it really doesn’t matter whether the politician is a Democrat or a Republican. Those elected from both parties are adroit at saying one thing and doing another.
Case in point: Republicans growled repeatedly about needing to win the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. Thanks to the conservative grassroots movement, labeled the tea party, the House was won. Yet, Republicans still growled that they needed to win the Senate in order to repeal Obamacare. Thus, in 2014, the Senate was won. No real effort has been made to repeal Obamacare. No one, it seems, really wants to put the legislation on the desk of the president, even if he vetoes it. So what? At least representatives should do what they promised to do.
Suddenly the Republicans have 17 candidates running for the party’s presidential nomination. Donald Trump is throwing political correctness to the wind, spitting in the eye of those who want to take him on, including politicians and the media. He’s exciting the people that are so fed up with government, and his poll numbers are showing it.
So what does conservative writer George Will do? He writes a column essentially saying that Republicans should kick Trump out of the party because he will not promise to run as a third party candidate if he doesn’t get the Republican nod.
“A political party has a right to (in language Trump likes) secure its borders. Indeed, a party has a duty to exclude interlopers, including cynical opportunists deranged by egotism,” Will wrote.
His opinion is analogous to us marble-shooting kids seeing the crybabies who couldn’t win simply picking up their marbles and heading home. What Will fails to mention is that the same people who support the Republican party have a right not to vote or to go third party. The Republicans have felt the pain of both over the years.
On a Sunday talk show, Will further blamed James Madison and the separation of powers as the reason Republicans can’t get anything done in Congress. He doesn’t believe the anger should be aimed at John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, and he urged angry Americans to “get over it.”
Certainly the separation of powers has a lot to do with gridlock, but it wasn’t James Madison who made promises to the American people who voted for Republicans. Those seeking office made multiple promises they can’t seem to bring to legislative fruition.
Will has been one of my favorite conservative writers and commentators. However, he is grossly wrong on this. First of all, saying Trump has no place in the Republican Party is similar to saying Will has no right to comment or publish his opinion.
To blame Madison for the lack of Republican leadership at the top is laughable. But, to flip off those Trump backers with his “get over it” remark is no different than progressives who label conservatives because they have no better argument.
As an unaffiliated voter casting a ballot in the Republican primary, my vote is still open for debate. I’m going to continue to listen to all the candidates because I want to hear how they stand on the issues. Trump is not my favorite person, but I don’t plan to discount him either. Nor will I discount any of the others.
What the Republican Party should do is listen and be inclusive. But more importantly, it needs to insist its candidates not just win, but do what they say they are going to do after the election is over.
By the way, I wrote an email and sent it to Will expressing my sentiments regarding his column and television remarks.
“The real motivation of this email is simply to invite you to depart from your Ivory Tower and dispose of your $5 words and walk among the masses of Americans who obviously are sick and tired of politicians who don’t do what they promise. You might find that the folks I walk with every day are much smarter than you or the progressives give them credit for,” I wrote to Will.
People are fed up with politicians in D.C. and it is that simple.
Mitchell Oakley is the publisher emeritus of The Farmville Enterprise, The Standard Laconic and The Times-Leader.
