The American people better hope Obamacare covers Dramamine, given the furious amount of spin coming out of Washington since the midterm elections.
The mainstream media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, is working overtime to “interpret” the election to convince voters they didn’t say what they plainly meant to say, in an election where the Republicans took over the Senate, increased their majority in the House, elected governors in deep-blue states and even scored historic victories in statehouses around the country.
It’s amazing to me, even Fox News at times seems to have bought into the spin, which goes something like this: “The message from the voters Nov. 4 was that they’re tired of gridlock and a dysfunctional Congress. They want Washington to work again and for the White House and Congress to cooperate to get things done. The last thing they want to see” — so the spin goes — “are more showdowns between Republicans on Capitol Hill and President Obama.”
The comforting thing for the left about this spin is that absolves President Obama and his agenda of any blame for his party’s debacle. Get along, the pundits say, split the difference, work together.
Well, there’s the spin in Washington and the reality that anyone can see if they look at what happened Election Day with their own two eyes.
Voters weren’t sending a message of compromise. It was instead a complete rejection of the first six years of the Obama presidency, the lawlessness, the unconstitutional overreach, the unceasing regulation, the rising taxation. Consider just one result from the election: In exactly half of the states, Republicans now control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature, compared to just seven states where Democrats have complete control. No matter how many pundits and reporters you have in your corner, how can anyone seriously read this election as anything other than a complete repudiation of the president?
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The spin even extends to the turnout. Since Republican candidates did better this year with women, with Hispanic voters and black voters, the GOP agenda for the next two years should take into account the demands of the “Obama coalition.”
Those same analysts utterly fail to note that perhaps the most energized part of the electorate in 2014 were conservative Christians, many of whom sat out the 2012 election. Self-identified conservative Christians made up a stunning 32 percent of the vote Nov. 4, breaking for Republicans by an 86 percent to 12 percent margin. More than 52 percent of all votes that went to Republican candidates came from Christian conservatives; 86 percent of evangelicals backed Republicans, as did 70 percent of church-going Catholics.
I guarantee the “message” these voters wanted to send was nothing like the way the media are trying to spin things. Yes, there are a few housekeeping things the White House and Congress may be able to do before the end of the year, but the bigger message was that it is time to fight — and reverse — the agenda and philosophy of government we have been living with for the last six years.
Even worse, the president himself seems to embrace the media spin, showing no sign he has learned any lessons from one of the most comprehensive political rejections of modern times. He still talks of unilateral executive orders on immigration. The disastrous nuclear deal with Iran is moving forward. The president is cutting deals on climate change with China that give Congress no say. He’s even come out for “net neutrality,” part of a grand liberal design to regulate and tax the Internet. And that’s just in the first week since the vote!
Republicans must fight the spin on two fronts. First and foremost, by not falling for the “compromise” trap but to push forward with the agenda the voters elected them to pursue. The next two years are a golden opportunity to reverse the damage done in the last six, to use the power of the purse and the power of the majority to dictate the agenda and starve the White House of the funds it needs to carry out its regulatory, tax and policy dreams. Mr. Obama’s flurry of activity is actually a sign of fear that he is being made irrelevant in the policy battles to come. The truth is, the president is already irrelevant and no amount of messaging can change that.
And in fighting the spin, conservatives should also take on the spin-meisters. The mainstream media are all too willing to parrot the left’s positions, and it’s time someone called them on it. Just like the government, the press needs to be held accountable for its sins, to be shamed into presenting views and opinions that clash with its liberal outlook. Straight talk and straight thinking are the best way to fight the spin.
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• Tom DeLay, a former congressman from Texas and House majority leader from 2003 to 2005, writes a weekly column for The Washington Times and WashingtonTimes.com.
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