From all the recent events and their successful outcomes, it seems like conservatism is on a roll. However, now is certainly not the time to become complacent. There is a lot of work to be done over the next eight months.
The Republican Party is about to be given a second chance at governing, and they can't screw it up like they did last time. I hope this time we will have the appropriately strong conservative voices in Congress (and the White House in 2012) to make sure conservative principles are carried out.
With the primaries and the campaigns coming up, you can be sure the Democrats, especially the liberals, will be doing their best to run away from their past records and instead make wonderful promises, telling everyone they have finally heard the message. This also applies to the Republicans-in-name-only candidates. Don't believe a word they are saying. They are simply desperate to hang on to their jobs and really don't care too much about us or the country.
Lying worked last time, and they think it will work again. They knew they had to look like a conservative to get elected, even though they had no intention of governing as a conservative. Just look at all the promises Barack made during his campaign. It sure worked for him. It worked so well, he is still using this strategy.
Uh, Barack, it's not working any more. Just look at your plummeting approval rating, which is well below 50 percent. Even the peanut farmer had a higher approval rating for the same time period.
It is time for conservatives to become activists. We have to tell people every chance we get to not listen to candidates' promises but rather judge them solely on their track record. Nothing else matters. If we had done this with Obama, he would still be a relatively insignificant senator from Illinois, albeit the most liberal senator in the Democratic Party. He would be going back to his "church" to hear Jeremiah Wright preach hatred and would still be hanging around his left-wing radical friends like Saul Alinsky. Maybe he would even have time to spend a weekend or two every now and then for ACORN, counseling people on how to get away with illegal behavior.
Back to our responsibilities as activists. We have to especially talk to young people of voting age who were duped the first time around with Obama. I don't think they had any idea their future was going to be so heavily mortgaged to the point where they will not have as good a standard of living as their parents now have.
These are the people who should be invited to the upcoming Tea Parties so they can see for themselves that the liberals have totally mischaracterized these events _ probably out of ignorance or fear, since most have never attended one.
We also have to be willing to stand up and shout down the liberals when they misstate the truth. Granted, they are loud, but they are relatively few in number, and their arguments are pretty much based on emotion and lacking substance.
We have to make sure that we work tirelessly for conservative candidates, regardless from which party they come. Schumer and Gillibrand could be vulnerable this time, and it is inexcusable for any voter to say they didn't vote because their vote doesn't count or the weather was too bad to go out or they didn't have a ride.
Lastly, make sure you attend at least one, preferably more, Tea Parties this season. Make sure to take one or more open-minded friends with you. They will be favorably impressed.
I know there will be events in Oneonta, Sidney and Norwich, and if organizers will send me the dates, I will be happy to list them in my column. This offer holds for any other Tea Party event I don't know about. We all know how difficult it is to get appropriate coverage in the mainstream media.
Next time (unless Barack gives me something to write about), I'll try to make a list of what a true conservative candidate should look like. My observations might be different from other conservatives, but I know we will agree on the basic, core values.
I never realized until recently that my column on The Daily Star website had a place where comments could be made immediately below it. I want to offer a very belated thank-you for all the kind comments I have received from readers. I also get quite a laugh at those who are not quite so kind. But at least I know I got their blood pressure elevated. Both types of feedback keep me writing.
Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/tomsears.
