OPINION:
If Mr. Brown’s victory is a portent for more things to come, the winds of change will blow through Washington in November with hurricane-force winds.
Painfully, we don’t vote for real change in the nation’s capital. We have re-elected some of the same Fedzillacrats for decades and then complained that Washington is broken. Pure insanity.
It’s time to clean out the House and the Senate. True change is voting out the entrenched, hopelessly disconnected Fedzillacrats and replacing them with statesmen and women who care about America’s future more than their political skins.
While many independents and Republicans are celebrating Mr. Brown’s historic victory,I remain extremely suspicious of the Republican Party. Clearly, both the Democratic and Republican parties have been overtly guilty of grotesque and irresponsible pork spending and support of bigger, more unaccountable government. They are both as guilty as possible.
So, while many pundits are wondering what message the president and the left truly got from the Brown victory, we are wondering just what message the Republican Party received from the Massachusetts massacre.
If Republicans believe Bay State voters were simply angry at President Obama’s policies and moblike political tactics, they would be making a serious mistake. Indeed, the voters in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey voted against Democratic candidates. But I don’t believe they necessarily voted for the Republican candidate. They voted for change. I’m convinced many voted out of anger, frustration and angst.
The message the Republicans had better hear loud and clear is that Americans are disgusted and want real, substantive change - not more political doublespeak, no more shady backdoor deals such as the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback or Buying the Union; no more confusing 2,500-page bills that the current crop of Fedzillacrats haven’t read and don’t truly understand and that only a team of overpaidlawyers can decipher, sort of. That’s not the type of government America wants or deserves. Are you listening, Republicans?
Should the Republicans not get the message that free-thinking, independent cusses like me want less government, more freedom, more truth, less red tape, more pro-business policies, more common sense and less spending, the voters will rightfully toss them out of office, too. As well we should.
The Republican Party needs a clear vision of change for America and then to stay on that message. I haven’t heard it yet. That message can’t be that the party simply hammers away at Mr. Obama’s and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bloated and lethargic European-style government. Wrong move.
Republicans need to clearly articulate their principles, how they will change course for smaller government, provable fiscal responsibility and a truly transparent government. And then get after it with a vengeance. Unleash the Republican beast and kill the bloated Fedzilla. Win one for the Gipper.
The real question is: Has the Republican Party regained its soul? Only time will tell. It’s easy to vote for less spending and smaller government when the party’s not in power. The test comes when the voters give back the reins of power to Republicans and demand that they use that political power smartly and judiciously. Do not ever play the American people for fools. We have had enough of that smug elitism.
I will be watching the Republicans with a cautious eye and watching what they do, not what they say. I will not simply give them my vote. They are going to have to earn it by being better than before. That’s the lesson of the Massachusetts massacre.
Ted Nugent is a rock ’n’ roll legend and a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association.
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