Sometimes we get the result we voted for, but it's almost always a defensive vote. In 1980 we voted for the opposite of Nixon-Ford-Carter and got Reagan. In 1994 we voted for the opposite of Bill and Hillarycare, and got Newt. Since then, we've been getting less and less returns on our votes. We voted for the opposite of Al Gore, and got Bush 43. We voted for the opposite of Bush 43 and got Hugo Chavez.
The point is, we keep playing defense with our votes, and we are getting killed. It's time to go back on offense. That's where the Tea Party has been effective. While media tries to set up the two progressive parties as somehow representing a choice, the real wind of change is organizing on the horizon.
Even though the voters were smart enough to bring in the Republicans and their Contract with America In 1994, two years later the Republicans themselves threw out Newt. Near as I can recall, his only sin was being unlike the other Republicans. Perhaps Newt Gingrich was the original Tea Party politician; and seeing how the republicans treated him, and now treat Rand paul, it probably makes some sense. Newt took the blame for shutting down the government; even while many of us were loudly giving him kudos for that very useful exercise. Our only regret was that it didn't last long enough. Establishment Republicans think he led them astray. I think he was ahead of his time.
"Reduce the size and scope of the federal government?" Perish the thought! There was no room in either progressive party for a guy with such a command of history and economics on his side. Newt had to be marginalized, and so he was. I am quite sure the republicans will continue to fight the so-called tea parties. Big government republicanism is certainly more lucrative than small government leadership.
So, looking at 2012, who will emerge as the opposite of BHO? Can a real opposite emerge? Can it even be a Republican? Sometimes Newt looks like the best qualified, but since he tried to ingratiate himself with the progressive side of the party; including his ill-advised endorsement of Dede Scozzafava, he's pretty much fallen off the radar. Revolutionaries don't do that. And the Park 51 ground zero mosque dustup has exposed him as a populist who will have an opinion on a lot of irrelevant things...like state laws... Still, if the Tea Party recruited him to run in 2012, it would be a golden opportunity to present a contrast, and maybe even a choice.
