Quixotic (adj.) Named
after the classic literary character Don Quixote, it means to pursue
ideals without any thought to practicality. — Urban Dictionary
Over the years people
have suggested I run for political office; maybe this will help them
understand why I just don’t have a vocation for “politician.”
If I’d successfully run
for Congress as a Tea Party candidate, pledged to fight the ongoing
increases in the national debt, that’s what I’d be doing this week.
If I were in the United States Senate, I’d be standing with Ted
Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul against a budget that funds yet another
giant entitlement program we can’t afford without massive borrowing.
I might have had doubts
about the strategy. It would be hard to be estranged from favorite
columnists like Charles Krauthammer and taxpayer leaders like Grover
Norquist, who think the Cruz faction of the Republican Party is
wrong to allow part of the government to shut down because they
won’t give in on defunding ObamaCare. One of my local political
gurus calls it quixotic.
I wouldn’t want to be
called “quixotic.” I’ve read Cervantes’ book, seen the movie,
listened to the soundtrack, and realize that Don Quixote was nuts,
wearing a shaving bowl for a helmet and tilting at windmills he
imagined were giants.
And yet: I remember Don
Quixote as inspirational. I’m probably not the only one here who has
sung “The Impossible Dream” to ourselves as we were fighting some
unbeatable foe, in my case in the political arena.
According to Wikipedia
“When it was first published, Don Quixote was usually interpreted as
a comic novel. After the French Revolution it was popular in part
due to its central ethic that individuals can be right while society
is quite wrong. (Later) many critics came to view the work as a
tragedy in which Don Quixote’s innate idealism and nobility are
viewed by the world as insane, and are defeated and rendered useless
by common reality.”
Perhaps someone should
be writing a tragic sequel for our time, because it’s the world and
common reality that are insane. Without innate idealism, what
happens to us?
We’re told that there
was never a chance that Republicans could defund Obamacare. But at
least the voters, if they ever realize how bad it is, will know
which party tried to stop it.
Anyone paying attention
knows that Republicans were willing to compromise by just delaying
the individual mandate as Obama delayed the business mandate, while
giving exemptions to his politically allied groups and to Congress.
Moderate Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, offered a plan to reopen
the government, prevent a default, start negotiations on the
national debt, and maintain the 2011 agreement to reduce Washington
spending. Obama and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to
discuss it, instead adding a demand that the 2011 agreement be
violated in order to increase spending even more.
Democrats, in pure
partisanship lockstep, wouldn’t negotiate — until this intransigence
became obvious to even casual observers. As I write, the Senate may
be voting on a “short-term deal” to just get the government
functioning (if that is the word) and the debt ceiling raised for a
few months. I’m glad I’m not a politician who always has to push the
battle down the road because we can’t do our job and be deciders.
Because polls show
Republicans being blamed for the partial government shutdown, it’s
been in the cynical interest of Democrats to make sure they wring
the last drop of pain from the issue. Incredibly, Obama tried to
block elderly veterans from visiting the World War II Memorial,
while opening up the Mall to illegal immigrants rallying for
amnesty. Tourists visiting Yellowstone Park were kept away from Old
Faithful, though it erupts without government help. Childish
behavior from the most immature president in our history, backed up
by the entire Democratic machine, is allowed by the people who don’t
want to admit his re-election was a mistake.
Yet voters think
Republicans, who are fighting to keep the country solvent, resisting
letting the incompetent federal government take over our health
care, and trying to stop the runaway national debt, are the bad
guys? If the Tea Party legislators didn’t exist, we wouldn’t even
know we have these problems we need to resist. By standing up and
fighting, they keep some of us informed, and will perhaps wake up
enough of the others who live with the illusion that giant
government is merely a harmless windmill.
Republican moderates
scold these patriot politicians for picking the wrong battle, insist
they should have waited to take a stand on the debt ceiling. But
Obama and the Democrats aren’t going to ever get the debt under
control; Republicans will be attacked for endangering the national
if not the world economy if they don’t give in and borrow more,
forever.
What if the polls show
voters would blame the Republicans if the debt ceiling isn’t raised
until it hits 100 percent of our GDP? Then what will the moderates
do?
If I were in the
Senate, I’d stand with Rand, drink tea with Lee, and if necessary,
lose with Cruz. Because my country is in so much trouble, so much
debt, with such bad management, that there’s nothing to do but grab
some kind of helmet and charge the giant.
