2011 – A Year to Stay Engaged

Published in the January 7, 2011 edition of the Lynchburg Ledger

Politically, 2010 was a good year and a bad year.  What happened last year set the tone for this year and this is not a year to disengage. 

We need to learn from history that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."  The last time Republicans ousted Democrats in an election was in 1994 after the voters got a good look at Bill Clinton and his leftist policies.  They were particularly alarmed over the proposed “HillaryCare” which thankfully was defeated.

After electing the Republicans, many thought their work was done and they disengaged from the political process, it wasn’t long before Republicans began to look and sound like Democrats.  We have a name for that, “Potomac Fever.”  The media, which props up liberal Democrats while tearing down conservative Republicans, can be expected to up the ante in 2011.  In fact, ABC has already issued a warning to the freshmen Republicans of the 112th Congress.

ABC News’ Political Director Amy Walter has fired the first shot.  She said, “If Republicans decide they're going to spend the first six months of this year going over and debating the individual mandate or ObamaCare or whatever they want to call it, I think that's not going to sit very well with the electorate.”

Well, here is a news flash for the ignorant Ms. Walter.  ObamaCare was one of the top reasons the electorate threw out the Democrats. 

In 1994, we did not have the Internet, blogs, talk radio and a host of other communications vehicles.  Although the three networks are no longer as powerful and influential as they once were., the general public still needs to be able to discern media bias from fact.

President Barack Obama announced from his taxpayer-paid Christmas vacation in Hawaii that “Democrats and Republicans must work together in the new year and share responsibility for moving the country forward.” 

There is nothing like a shellacking at the polls to create a change in attitude.  Two years ago, when Republicans attempted to bring issues to the newly-elected Obama, they were met with two words, “We won.”  Now all of a sudden, Obama wants cooperation.

The Republican answer should be “Hell no.”   The electorate did not send 63 new congressmen and 6 new senators to Washington to compromise.  They were sent there to lead.

In 2006 when the Republicans lost both the House and Senate after becoming more and more like Democrats, they respected the will of the people.  In their “lame duck” session, they didn’t attempt to pass any meaningful legislation.

Such was not the case in 2010.  The defeated Democrats determined to govern in opposition to the will of the people.  They tried to push through every left-wing bill they had.  Unfortunately, some of them passed, among them repealing “Don’t Ask –Don’t Tell” after eight Republicans voted with the defeated Democrats in the Senate.  Republican Senators Scott Brown, Richard Burr, Susan Collins, John Ensign, Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe and George Voinovich joined the Democrats passing the bill by 65 to 31.

This should convince us that we still have a lot of work to do.  If our nation is to survive,

defeating Democrats is not enough; we must also defeat liberal Republicans by replacing them with conservatives.

The mistake we have made in the past, and I include myself in this number, is not following up with our newly elected officials.  This year it is going to be more important then ever to keep in contact.  The newly elected representatives are going to be under enormous pressure from the liberal media and the Democrats to “compromise.”  We need to constantly assure them that we did not send them to Washington to compromise with the Obama agenda, but to de-fund it, derail it and eventually repeal it.

Robert Hurt needs to hear from us on a regular basis.  We need to tell him we don’t want ObamaCare funded.  We don’t want earmarks.  We do want government to rein in spending and we don’t want government control of the Internet and business.

Robert Hurt can be contacted by mail at:
Hon. Robert Hurt
Longworth House Office Building, Office # 1516
Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street
Washington, DC 20003
. 

His office phone is 202-225-4711.  You will be asked if you would like to leave a message or talk to a staff member.  Do both, by calling back.

Additionally, you can receive weekly updates on how our Senators and congressman votes by signing up at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/.  You will receive emails telling you how they voted and what votes are coming up.

Stay engaged in 2011 because in 2012 we need to defeat Obama.  Redistricting is going to give traditional red states more political power, making it easier to replace Obama with a conservative Republican.  But until then, we must de-fund, obstruct, divert, disparage and otherwise limit the socialistic agenda of Obama and the Democrats.