America's opportunity

On Friday, many Americans received news that they had long wished for - Speaker John Boehner is to retire his position at the end of October.

This presents the Republicans in the House of Representatives with an opportunity to come outside of the Washington Bubble and elect someone who resonates with Republican voters.  Let's not forget, when considering the candidates, that the Tea Party is Republican.  Indeed, many who follow that group, consider that they are the true keepers of Republican ideals.

The early front-runner, Kevin McCarthy, from California seem to be very much the  'establishment' candidate.  A man who can be relied upon to not rock the boat, to not confront the Obama regime - to be a good ol' boy.  Boehner without the orange perma-tan.

It would be a grave mistake for Karl Rove and Reince Preibus to push and impose 'more of the same' on Republican supporters.  The grassroots, and that doesn't just mean, the Tea Party, need to be brought back into the fold.  The Republican leadership will ignore them at their, and America's peril.

Simply put, America (and, come to that the World) cannot take another 4 years of Democrat mis-management.  There is no time for the dubious luxury of RINOs.

The clear choice should be Rep.Trey Gowdy.  He has stirred the pot by pursuing Hillary Clinton over Benghazi.  He may yet be able to bring her to book for, what was at best a serious dereliction of duty and at worst complicity in the unnecessary death of Americans and then in the reprehensible cover-up  of the background to the events.   Having opposed Boehner's debt limit measures in the past, being fundamentally against Obamacare, which he wants to repeal, wanting to limit the interfering and anti-business regulations that emanate from the Climate Change fools that run the Environmental Protection Agency and strongly in favour of a balanced budget, Gowdy demonstrates all of the characteristics that are wanted by a leader of the Republicans.  He is 'sound', as they say in Britain, on all of the issues that really matter to Republicans and right-thinking Americans.

He does seem to lack the ability to tear-up and bawl at the drop of a hat but my thinking is that this is something America can live without.

The selection of Gowdy should also help to thin out the current crop of those seeking the nomination for Republican candidate for President.  It would send a clear message to America and particularly, the Democrat Party, that the Republicans mean business.  That the Republicans are going to focus on the key issues affecting America:

• The rampant and unaffordable spending of the Obama administration and proposed by the Democrat candidates.
• The swamping of America's cities by illegal aliens.
• The weakening of America's military
• The abandonment of America's traditional allies in favour of nations that seek the very destruction of America.
• The restoration of respect for the rule of law, including the Constitution, and the protection of those that serve and enforce the law.
• Ensuring that veterans, who have loyally served America, receive the medical treatment that they need.
• That terrorism and the evils of Islam are recognised as the truly single greatest threat to the very existence of the United States and not the pseudo-science and doctored-results backed Climate Change. 
• That the education of America's future generations must emphasise the importance of the Judeo-Christian values upon which America was founded.

Of course, Gowdy probably won't be elected.  McCarthy will get the role and will continue the obeisance to Obama and in doing so, will cause continued hardship for millions of Americans and will accelerate the decline of America.  This will also cause many Republicans to move ever further away from the Republican Party and to not vote for it in 2016 - why would any Republican vote for the likes of Bush or Rubio, when a true Republican like Ted Cruz is sidelined by the establishment?


 

Offensive Republicans!

I haven't gone over to the dark side!

I believe that it is time for the Republicans to go on the offensive.  I have said here before that it is not possible to treat with Obama.  He has the MSM in his pocket and now seemingly the Supreme Court, so now it is the leaders in the third branch of the US government - the legislature - that needs to come to the aid of the USA and the US Constitution.

First step must be to remove John Boehner and Mitch McConnel from their leadership roles.  Clearly either Obama has the dirt on them (and what dirt it must be for such traitorous actions) or they are being bought-off by Soros and his ilk.  They have to go and go now.and then Republicans rally round a common platform that is designed to use all Constitutional levers to thwart Obama.

This has to start with the initiation of impeachment proceedings against Obama and Kerry.  Also using the strongest Congressional powers against Hillary Clinton, for her crimes in Benghazi and with her e-mail criminality.  Then also, action against Holder for Fast and Furious and whatever else can be thrown at him.  Then the IRS.

America, and Republicans in particular, you can no longer sit back and think 'well they got that but they wouldn't go any further' because they will.  Make no mistake these people do not serve the interests of America.  The Iran deal alone, puts America at a very grave risk.

Don't be distracted by the literally 'false flag' issues such as the Confederate flag or the  SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage or on Obamacare.  These can be addressed once the people re-take control.

For now, focus on stopping Obama but first get the leadership to do so.

2015 - Prospects and ....

I couldn't think of a word for the other aspect of what we face in 2015 but maybe by the end of this we will have it.

Prospects first then.

The new US Congress convenes in January and has a Republican majority in both houses.  I think that has the prospect of being a good thing.  The newly elected members will join incumbents but critically, these 'newbies' will bring with them a clear mandate from the electorate.  Change is needed in Washington.  That means that Congress needs to clean-up its act.  Less 'pork-barrel' politics and more 'American' policies.  Policies that will start to restore America in the eyes of its friends and its foes.

'American' policies?  Well that means no amnesty for a start.  It is 'American' to emigrate to the USA via legal routes not by hopping over the border accompanied by disease-ridden narco-gang members and others who believe that laws are meant for someone else.

So, no Amnesty and a clear statement to the Department of Homeland Security - Congress will de-fund you if you do not secure the border - that's the Southern border, in case you don't know which one.  Congress will de-fund HS if you don't start deporting, in significant numbers all of those illegal immigrants that entered the US during 2014 and then work backwards, year by year.  Who knows?  In the process you may well come across some Al Qaeda  or ISIS terrorists, on the way.  It's a pretty safe bet that some used the chaos that Obama created on the border, to infiltrate the country.

Again, no Amnesty.  Can't say it often enough.

Obamacare will really kick-in in 2015 and it is the duty of Congress to start the process of repeal and then accelerate so that this is done by the end of 2015 and America enters the 2016 election year with a clear choice between Democrats (who voted the ACA through without even reading it!) and want to reinstate it and with Republicans who oppose such socialistic but more importantly unworkable legislation.

Spending has to be reduced.  The people get it but clearly Speaker John Boehner doesn't.  Obama  has always been a lost cause.  Indeed, the same can be said of all Democrats.  Margaret Thatcher once said 'the trouble with Socialists is that eventually they run out of other people's money to spend' and that is where today, America finds itself.  So as well as spending needing to be drastically reduced, Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must be replaced.  Rep. Trey Gowdy and Senator Ted Cruz or Senator Mike Lee would seem to be candidates that best represent the views of the Republican voters.

Spending reductions are also a prospect for British voters - though, (and this is where that .... creeps in) there is every prospect that the parties in the upcoming General Election will fall over themselves to offer money Britain doesn't have and hasn't earned as electoral bribes.  They don't call it 'pork-barrel' in the UK but the result is the same - unaffordable spending fueled by debt.

A gloomy prospect (there's that ...... again) is that the Scottish Nationalists (SNP)  may hold the balance of power and strike an underhand deal with Labour surrounding yet more transfer of powers to the devolved Scottish Parliament.  It is unbelievable but no less true that the SNP who so solidly lost the Scottish Indpendence Referendum now face the prospect of being the major Scottish influence at Westminster.  It says everything about Labour and their woeful leader, Ed Miliband, that we come to this pass.

Incidentally, while we are on the subject of the SNP, how on earth can they possibly be in the ascendancy when they made such huge play about an independent Scotland's prospects but all based on oil at the 'conservatively' set price of $113/bbl.  Oil is currently half that price and all commentators see oil at greater than $100 no time in the near future!

With Labour and the SNP squeezing on one side the Conservatives face the grim prospect of losing power as they are also being assailed from UKIP.  I think that the electorate distrust the Conservatives on Europe and I can't help but have a sneaking suspicion that the Conservatives wouldn't mind losing the election so that the question of an EU referendum becomes someone elses responsibility/headache.

If the Conservatives do regain power, it will likely be to lead a minority government.  That though doesn't preclude the greatest prospect which is deep and meaningful cuts in UK public spending.  This is long overdue and I sense would receive strong support from the working population, if it was properly presented showing the choice between further indebtedness and future impoverishment and an affordable future for Britain and its children.

Back to prospects and  for the first time in a long time,  Europe and immigration will likely be 'front and centre' in the UK General Election and there is every prospect that contra-opinions to those of the metropolitan elite and to the ruling bureaucracy (the real rulers) will  be heard and perhaps a reasoned debate might ensue - we can but hope!

Of course, an easy prospect for the UK is that the key issue will be the economy and its prospects.  These will surely be enhanced if the austerity policies of the Conservatives, however anemic they have so far been, are preferred to those of the profligate debt-fueled spending proposed by Labour.

So, Prospects and .... abound and the above are just a foretaste but we need the following - and by we, I mean not just the USA and the UK, I mean the 'West' needs the following:

US Republicans to follow the electorate given mandate - no amnesty, reduce America's deficit (debt is perhaps too much to ask for), secure the border and start to repair relations with America's natural allies.  The latter will mean abandoning some of Obama's newly close Islamic allies but so be it.

UK Conservatives go forward on an economic plan founded upon lower taxes and much lower public spending.  Also be clear on Europe, if the UK can't get what it wants from a renegotiation, then we will leave.  It is asinine to go into a renegotiation of terms saying that even if the UK doesn't get what it wants, then the Conservatives will still campaign for continued membership.  Oh and one of those things has to be reduced immigration and zero, nada, zilch welfare benefits for any non-Britons.

So, no amnesty, spending cuts and then we can forget about those ........

After the Mid Terms

Thanks to American voters, Republican Party candidates did very well in the US' Mid Term elections.  That sounds so  good to write that I will say it again.  The Republican Party gave the Democrat Party a thrashing in the Mid Term elections.

And let's be clear - a thrashing is what it was.  Leave aside, for a moment, the exceedingly good results in the Senate and Gubernatorial  races - since these were not nation-wide then they can be said to not be representative of the 'national mood'.  The same cannot be said of the elections for the House of Representatives.  These were conducted across America and, given President Obama's assertion that his policies were 'on the ballot', then there was a very clear repudiation of those policies. I suspect that it wasn't just the overt policies - those that head towards the statute book, I think that it was also the modus operandi employed by the Democrats that was rejected (more on this, shortly).

Americans across the country have seen the left-ward lurch under Obama and, in spite of a fawning and therefore uninformative media, they have rejected that direction and have indicated a desire to move back towards more traditional American values and politics.

That said, I sense that this 're-positioning' should not be considered as permanent.  By this I mean that the American people have been sorely tested by Obama's economic 'recovery' the failings of Obamacare and the various scandals that would have engulfed any other administration but with the compliance of the media, merely 'stained' this one, but I don't think that Republicans have clearly articulated a coherent alternative.  So, .......

When the new Congress convenes in January, they need to hit the ground running.  Republicans cannot be Republicans in name only (RINOs).  Nor can Tea Party adherents be ideological obstructionists.   Both wings of the 'right' need to come together and pursue Republican policies.  And this united front needs to be complied with.  So no sulking and taking your vote away because your too far right of 'right of centre' idea has been rejected by the majority of the Republican movement.  Argue your position and then get behind the decision.  America is not your plaything and can't simply wait on you sulking in your tent, nor will America forgive such petulance.  The 'right' has an opportunity to pursue conservative policies and push that agenda but that doesn't mean pursuing far right or 'Democrat in Republican clothing' policies.  America is in trouble and needs its conservatives to put aside the 'nice to haves' and to focus on the 'have to haves'.  To focus on getting Americans back to work, a strong economy and a strong and respected America.

In short, Republicans need to get on with the job for which they were collectively elected - to 'fix' America.

What does that mean?  Well, let's consider the current state of play.  The Democrats and the President still have a little under two months to push through legislation and then, after January, President Obama has his mighty pen and Executive Orders.  Congress after January is obviously though, not without its own power, not least of which is to defund, defund and defund.


In my view, Mitch McConnell, assuming he is elected as Majority Leader and Speaker John Boehner  need to come out and publicly state that any inflammatory legislation, e.g. an immigration amnesty, that is rushed through before the new Congress sits, will be opposed and, come January, repealing legislation will be passed.  Same applies to any pardons or whitewashes of the various scandals that have surfaced - these abuses of power will be pursued and prosecuted - not to the exclusion of all else, fixing the economy has absolute priority, but for the good of  America's democracy.

During the recent campaign, much was made of the number of bills that are sitting on former Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid's desk.  The number was in excess of 300.   What particularly irked people was that many of these had passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support and some, unanimously so.  Therefore these bills, should now move from the Harry Reid waiting room, through to the floor of the Senate and onwards to votes and Presidential signing.

Next, Obamacare.  All I have heard of it tells me that this is wrong for America.  Certainly it isn't delivering the savings nor the coverage that was touted.  Rather than get into a battle over repealing it - Obama will be most unlikely to sign any such repeal into law - simply defund it.  Or, if it can be fixed (and Republican thinkers, when they apply themselves are very innovative) then proceed with it but, and it is a big one, there can be no exemptions.  Congress cannot pass laws and then exempt itself from the effects of such laws.  That might have worked for pre-revolution French aristocrats but not for 21st Century Americans.

The Senate needs to institute hearings on the scandals that have surfaced (VA administration, Fast and Furious, Benghazi and IRS, spring immediately to mind).  Such hearings have been blocked by Harry Reid and the Democrats because they will clearly be an embarrassment for the Obama administration.  This cannot continue.  And if people like the former IRS head, Lois Lerner, plead the 'fifth' then recognise the fact that she is in contempt of Congress and throw her in jail.  Same for those people who are busily destroying e-mails!

Fundamentally though, the new Republican Congress needs to work on fixing America.  Be very clear, there is a deep disapproval of Congress, by the electorate.  My view is that this is because Americans see Congress as more interested in politicking than in getting something done (and maybe also, 'lining their own pockets' at the same time.

Don't look to the White House for support - it hasn't come in the last six years, it won't come in the next two. A  job title for Community Organizer sounds like it should qualify you to bring people together but we have seen that the former Community Organizer, occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is only concerned with telling the community what to do and doesn't feel the need to listen to the community.

As said earlier, fixing America means putting aside what divides Republicans and focusing on getting the economy re-built.

I am British and I know this about Republicans.  It doesn't matter if they are left of centre-right, centre right or right of centre right or even really right of centre-right, they have common core principles founded on a love of their country and the US Constitution and a belief in conservative values such as small government.  Think of those uniting principles in the coming months and focus on restoring America.  The USA needs this and so does the rest of the right-thinking World.