Pledges? We Don't Need No Stinking Pledges!
In a bid to shore up support for the upcoming November election, the GOP has released the “Pledge To America,” trying to emulate the 1994 “Contract With America” championed by then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. This was during President Clinton’s midterms when Republicans swept the House and the Senate for the first time in decades.
But as President Obama’s administration is falling apart and support for him is at an all-time low, Republicans should know better than to try the same type of political theater that Obama's detractors have grown so tired of as to push an agenda designed around appeasement rather government.
First let’s compare the “Pledge” to the “Contract.” The first part of the 21-page “Pledge” is basically a study in redundancy, repeating what we all know to be the principals and ideals set forth by the founders: that in America we, the governed, through our votes, are supposed to be able to determine for our collective selves what the laws of the land should be, what direction the country should take and what values are important to us as a nation.
They go on to state “We pledge to make government more transparent in its actions, careful in its stewardship and honest in its dealings.” Sounds familiar. In fact, it sounds a lot like a certain mantra from a recent Presidential campaign. That turned out well. The pledges continue.
“We pledge to uphold the purpose of a better America, knowing that to whom much is given, much is expected and that the blessings of our liberty buoy the hopes of mankind.” To whom much is given? How many people have to die on foreign battlefields before some people realize nothing is given…it is earned. Gifts are given – freedom has to be fought for and bled for and for the people who have to do the bleeding, pledges and promises in the same old political rhetorical language are hollow, staid and too little too late.
The preamble ends with “We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent and we invite fellow citizens and patriots in forming a new governing agenda for America.” A new governing agenda? The agenda we conservatives want isn’t new, it’s been the agenda from the beginning of the Republic: government by and for and of the people, not the representatives and the sooner they realize that the better for them. But is it better for us?
This last “pledge” is a transparent attempt by the GOP to associate and ingratiate themselves with the Tea Party contingent, which in recent primaries have upset the conservative apple cart and scared lifelong politicians out of their smoke filled rooms and into the light, to straddle the rails of the ship just in case it sinks.
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