Conservatives were delighted to see the Republican candidates talking back to the CNBC inquisitors at last week’s presidential debate.
What made news was not that the questions were biased; that is old news. That the candidates revolted – that was newsworthy. And it was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who led the revolt, as he has done on the floor of Congress. Fence sitters, take note.
The revolt was stunning, a lightning bolt of civic illumination in a room filled with dark foreboding. Sam Adams would be proud. Could it be a sign that Republicans are getting serious about taking back our country?
Don’t count on it – old habits die hard, especially bad habits. It’s going to require more than a change in debate rules and debate venues to get that vehicle out of the mud. At least one candidate, John Kasich, refused to join the revolt, saying he thought the CNBC moderators did a good job. Good-bye, John; we hope you enjoy the next five years in Ohio expanding Medicaid and welcoming Muslim refugees.
Talking past the media directly to the American people is not something today’s politicians do naturally or very well. After all, the art of political “messaging” taught at “candidate schools” begins with an acceptance of media bias and its “hostile narrative.” We have grown accustomed to it, like accepting alligators in your back yard when you live next to a swamp. And if you feed the alligators, you get more of them.
The debate over media bias is over; it’s not debatable any longer. But it remains to be seen if the Republicans have learned the real lesson. The biased questions by Boulder’s CNBC panelists are only the tip of a very large iceberg. Behind the little torpedoes launched at the debate stage lie even larger weapons of mass deception and distraction.
The mainstream media are not merely “biased,” not just tilted a little to the left, they are in bed with the enemy. It’s not a bias, it’s an agenda. The mainstream media is not an ally of the left, they are its storm troopers and assassins.
Like 90 percent of Ivy League professors, Hollywood celebrities and late-night TV hosts, the media are also all in for Obama’s “transformative change” and “social justice.” They’ve never met a race card slander they didn’t like.
This is nothing new to the conservative movement. Rush Limbaugh got all that right years ago. In 2009, he was pilloried by the D.C. establishment when he said he hoped Obama would fail in achieving his goals. That’s because, unlike Republican Party leaders, he understood Obama’s goals. Limbaugh has been warning us about a deep cultural rot in our intellectual class, an accelerating collapse of standards and the institutions necessary to support and sustain limited government. Yet, the Beltway consultant class and the party leadership would not listen. In fact, they mocked him, as they still do today.
Like Limbaugh, conservatives are still waiting for the Republican Party establishment to wake up and join the battle. Last week’s Obama/Boehner budget deal was the last straw for many.
Yet, by God’s grace, there is some very good news among the rubble, and it comes from an unlikely place. The good news is the gift of Hillary Clinton and her shrill campaign of openly leftist snake oil.
In order to motivate the Democrat base, which is increasingly socialist and openly anti-American, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has taken off the masks of moderation and turned hard left. That is the good news. It means no more stealth socialism because the 2016 election will be a true referendum on the socialist, “global citizen” agenda, not a phony debate over what costume we should wear as we jump off the cliff into tyranny.
Hillary Clinton cannot run away from her own record of incompetence or from the Obama record of abject betrayal. She is a walking disaster as a candidate who has survived only because of the screen of immunity provided by the progressive media. That screen is collapsing mainly because of its own hubris, and no one can protect Hillary from herself.
Here’s the truth of the matter: only the Republican Party can elect Hillary Clinton – by shadow boxing and failing to join the battle.
- The Republican leadership might continue on the path to oblivion by nominating a safe candidate in the tradition of McCain and Romney — as they did last week in the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker of the House.
- They might continue to support open borders and massive immigration to drive down middle-class wages, while abandoning assimilation as “xenophobic and racist.”
- They might welcome additional thousands of Muslim “refugees” who have been selected by the UN and not adequately vetted to identify Islamic jihadists.
- They might continue to add to the 18 trillion national debt and condemn our grandchildren to a life of poverty.
- They might continue to wink at Obama’s unconstitutional extension of regulatory powers, his subversion of the Department of Justice, and his undisguised hatred of our military.
All of that is possible, maybe even likely. But it is not inevitable. The rebellion in Boulder offers a ray of hope – hope that a larger rebellion has begun.
Tom Tancredo is the founder of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and founder and co-chairman of Team America PAC.
Tom represented Colorado’s sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, and he is a former presidential candidate.
He is the author of In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America’s Border and Security.
