(Kathleen Sliter) – I felt such bitter betrayal on Saturday, April 9, that I had to let several days pass before I could put pen to paper. We’ve heard so many opinions from political pundits; Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove, Sean Hannity, Brit Hume and so on. Here’s my opinion: WE THE PEOPLE were took in but not defeated.
John Boehner and the other Republican leaders in Washington, DC, pledged to cut spending by $100,000,000,000 if WE THE PEOPLE elected Republicans on November 2, 2010 and gave them another chance. Remember Speaker Boehner saying, “We know we’re on probation”?
But almost as soon as he was handed the Speaker’s Gavel on January 21, 2011, John Boehner started to back-peddle. The first clue was when he said, “I will not shut down the government.” Remember that statement? Beginning in January, Speaker Boehner gave us little hints that his knees were turning wobbly.
I knew he was going to betray his pledge when he said, “We are only one-half of one-third of the federal government.” But wait a minute, didn’t he know that when he made his $100-billion pledge? Did John Boehner wake up one morning and realize Republicans only control one-half of one-third of the Federal government?
No, he knew that all the time, but he became faint-of-heart when the Democrats opened their dusty old playbook for the zillionth time in the past fifty or more years. The same old playbook WE THE PEOPLE know by heart: Republicans will starve children (i.e. stop school lunches). The reality is children won’t starve; however, their parents, and not the taxpayers, will have to feed them. The next old threat: Republicans will prevent women from receiving health care (i.e. stop abortion by unfunding Planned Parenthood). The reality is women can still have abortions, but they, and not the taxpayer, will pay the cost.
WE THE PEOPLE worked hard to get more Republicans elected to the House of Representatives than had been done since 1938. Plus, over 600 Republicans were elected to State Houses. WE THE PEOPLE met the challenge and gave them another chance, but we were fooled again.
When I heard on Saturday morning, April 9th, that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor had “worked hard” to get spending cuts of a miniscule $38,500,000,000, I was enraged, dis-spirited, disappointed, and heart-broken. I thought to myself, “What’s the use?” Did you feel that way, too?
Yet as I pondered what to do, I remembered the Founding Fathers and the pledge they made. When they signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Yes, their SACRED HONOR. With that pledge, they put their necks in a noose because they would have been hung for treason had the colonists lost the Revolutionary War. I also remembered the pledge I made to GOD and my family, “I will never give up the struggle.”
It’s obvious John Boehner has no honor, sacred or otherwise. He will not be hung for treason, but WE THE PEOPLE can end his political career and the careers of all the others who failed us.
We must show our elected officials that we mean what we say and say what we mean. We have a duty to ourselves and our posterity to keep alive the struggle to wrest our beloved American freedoms from all who would steal them. We must never allow apathy to enter our lives again. Apathy is a silent disease which leads to sleeping sickness. But the giant named WE THE PEOPLE has awakened and the Spirit that lives in the hearts of Americans can never be defeated.
(Kathleen Sliter is treasurer of the Lyon County Republican Women, a member of Lyon County Republican Central Committee, and a member of Nevada State Republican Central Committee.)
