| | I have no trust in the GOP. As a party, they don't want anything but power. Once they have their majority they will want to use their power for their version of big government. The behind-the-scenes power brokers have no use for freedom or for the Tea Party except to use them, and only if they must, as Trojan horses to sneak more of their cronies through the gates to power.
BUT... It is going to be different in a few ways from 1994.
1. GRASSROOTS: There IS a grassroots movement that isn't going to go to sleep immediately or as quickly as before. They aren't as trusting of the Republicans as an answer to the problems as they were after the 1994 elections.
2. THE ISSUES: The issues are more clearly defined and in more fundamental terms. Never before have we seen and heard the word "Capitalism" used in positive ways by as many people. And "small government" hasn't been as strongly defended.
3. BETTER CONGRESS: There will be more free-enterprise people elected (along with some idiots and liars). Congresswoman Michelle Bachman formed the Tea Party Caucus and intends to use it to hold the newly elected candidates who ran as free-enterprisers to their promises. (Only time will tell if this has any effectiveness).
4. LIBERTARIANISM: The Libertarian position is being articulated more publicly with Beck, Stossel, Judge Napolitano, and others who are winning a bit more respect, like Ron Paul. Still a long ways from being main stream, and still not having a place of any power as a political power, the libertarian political positions on issues are being heard by more people than ever more. Last Republican presidential primary debate, Ron Paul was listened to, but got little respect. If he choses to be in the next presidential primary, he still probably won't win, but he'll be listened to much, much more closely.
5. FREE BY RIGHT: Rand's moral foundation for Capitalism is being heard more often - that people have right to keep what is theirs. And the sale of her books continues to escalate. I can only imagine the explosion that a well done Atlas Shrugged movie would have right now or in the next year or two.
6. MSM HEADING FOR IMPLOSION: The main-stream media, which has always been a problem has never been as deeply and clearly biased or liberally active as they are now - that is not a position they can enjoy at will. It will come to an end. Their views will have to prevail in politics and culture, across the nation, or they will be cast aside and an entirely new media will sweep in to fill the vacuum - I suspect that this will happen in a big way over the next three years or so.
7. LAME DUCK BOMB: The lame duck congress will be likely to vent their nasty, vile spleens by passing every progressive abomination they can think of - and it will have the effect of further inflaming the grass roots which is a good thing because it is perfect timing for making sure the new congress doesn't screw around and gets right to repealing or at the least de-funding all the nutty legislation. The moral outrage will fuel congress and lessen the chance they'll go back to politics as usual.
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I think that Obama will move to the center, like Clinton did, but with the following difference. Clinton was a progressive whose personal motivation of excitement and pushing things to the edge overwhelmed his ideology (and good sense). Obama will move to the center only in appearance and in a very sneak way - pretending that he hasn't changed positions at all. And only as a way to try to keep his transformation of the nation alive and well until the next major crisis - he wants to be there in the seat of power to declare that under the next emergency he must nationalize this, regulate that, etc. He is driven by ideology and he is more than willing to deceive - so I expect him to do say and do what's needed to keep power, and then to use the power to achieve ideological goals whereas Clinton was willing to give up most of those goals to hold the power and have fun.
This will be bad, because Obama is persuasive and good at that kind of lying. And it is very dangerous because of the vast expansion of the executive powers that have occurred since FDR and that Obama has enthusiastically expanded still further and because I think he will engineer a crisis if one doesn't occur naturally (and there are about a dozen hanging by just a thread). And it is dangerous because of the degree to which the constitution is ignored in Washington today. We don't yet know what extremes Obama is willing to go to to destroy the old system which he hates.
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