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Guest editorial by David McCleary
Gallup reports that American voters are ideologically shifting toward more conservative political opinions. This shift seemingly includes their willingness to tolerate the conservative politics of ‘no’. For a year now, GOP leaders have been saying ‘no’ as a unilateral defense against effective leadership. They have said ‘no’ to most if not all democrat-sponsored bills; ‘no’ to collaboration and compromise; ‘no’ to progress and productivity and ‘no’ to effective governance.
In January 2009, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor wrote in Politico that, “it would be a great mistake for the House GOP to turn inward and simply become the party of ‘no.’” In February of 2009 in the Washington Post, Cantor contradicted those remarks by saying the Republican Party’s approach to the Obama agenda was “to just say no.” Thus began the year of ‘no’ including no satisfaction for the American taxpayers who had turned to the government for the type of flawless leadership that would lead them out of the recession.
Lately, the anemic yields from the Republican investment in the ‘no’ philosophy seem no better than the sloppy returns from the Democratic portfolio. The Democratic leadership has been tested and tried for their lackluster first year, but Republican stonewall politics offer little value as an alternative.
