The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 2, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Page: 4 of 8
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GOP voters get what they deserve
Pardon me if I fail to join the
crowd handicapping next week's
Iowa GOP caucuses like racetrack
touts peddling betting tips on the
Kentucky Derby.
To begin with, I have no clue.
Except on the sports page, 1 nor-
mally skip articles speculating
about what might happen tomor-
row. Damned if I'm going to start
writing them.
Also, who cares? History teaches
that Iowa Republicans have a par-
ticularly poor record of supporting
the eventual presidential winner. In
six contested GOP primaries dating
back to 1976, Iowans have gotten it
right exactly once. They chose
George W. Bush in 2000 - definite-
ly nothing to brag about. In
essence, the Iowa caucuses amount
to a marketing device for cable TV
news channels; it's "American
Idol" for the politically obsessed.
Their secondary function is to
introduce cosmopolitan news cor-
respondents to the homespun wis-
dom of Real Americans in places
like Ankeny, Iowa, a Des Moines
suburb where John Deere tractors
are manufactured.
A Washington Post reporter
found a grandmother there who he
GENE
LYONS
thought epito-
mized Iowa vot-
ers' inability to
make up their
minds. First, she
liked Texas Gov.
Rick Perry on
account of his
advertised piety.
Then she
watched Perry's
hilarious impersonation of a stoned
cowboy during the umpty-seventh
GOP debates and switched to The
Girl With the Faraway Eyes, as
Esquire's Charles Pierce calls
Michele Bachmann, also due to her
religiosity.
Alas, Bachmann "has kind of an
annoying voice," so Grandma
changed to Newt for a few days
before seeing a TV report of U.S.
troops pulling out of Iraq, taking no
casualties as they went. God, she
believed, had protected them in
spite of gay marriage, abortion,
consumerism and greed. And if
God hadn't given up on America,
how could she? So she dropped
"the smart one" (Newt) in favor of
the holiest candidate of all.
"It was just this big epiphany,"
she said. "We've got to vote for
Santorum! That's all there is to it."
If former Sen. Rick Santorum's
lucky, his newest supporter won't
learn that he has bitterly criticized
President Obama on the grounds
that, contrary to God's plan, by
leaving Iraq the U.S. has "lost the
war." Santorum's also keen on
attacking Iran, a nearby country
several times larger than Iraq.
Anyway, who knows? Maybe
the nice lady in Ankeny - whose
vote counts every bit as much as
yours, mine and Lady Gaga's -
would be down with that, although
in my experience it's the rare grand-
mother who's enthused about pre-
emptive bombing strikes.
Besides, what's alarming about
the GOP contest isn't the indeci-
siveness or poor reasoning process-
es of Iowa voters. It's the dismal
quality of the choices they're
offered. Is this the best one of
America's two major political par-
ties can do? You've got to wonder
what would happen if they put
"None of the Above" on the ballot.
With the possible exception of
Mitt Romney, there's not one
among them you'd hire to mn a
Wal-Mart - a difficult job requiring
mastery of a million details and an
ability to manage people. Of
course, if you did hire Romney, you
might wake up to find he'd fired all
the employees, spun off the grocery
operation, and sold the building to
Dollar General for a fraction of its
value and a player to be named
later.
Even the former Massachusetts
governor appears only intermittent-
ly in touch with the visible world.
Recently he described himself as an
advocate of "the opportunity socie-
ty" and his putative opponent as
follows: "President Obama
believes that government should
create equal outcomes. In an enti-
tlement society, everyone receives
the same or similar rewards,
regardless of education, effort and
willingness to take risk. That which
is earned by some is redistributed to
the others. And the only people
who truly enjoy any real rewards
are those who do the redistribut-
ing - the government."
In short, Obama's a communist.
And the evidence for this prepos-
terous claim? Certainly nothing the
president has ever said or done.
Obama favors a return to Clinton-
era tax rates, a time of balanced
budgets and growing prosperity. A
multimillionaire like Romney
would find his marginal tax rate on
income over $1 million had risen
from 35 to 39.6 percent. I believe
he can afford it. True, Obama’s
health care reform is mildly redis-
tributive, but then so is the Romney
Massachusetts insurance plan it so
closely resembles.
For that matter, Social Security's
mildly progressive too. But then
candidate Romney wants to priva-
tize that. And, oh yeah, bomb Iran.
Or he pretends to believe these
things, anyway, and none too con-
vincingly. Hence the confusion we
observe. The GOP's larger problem
is that, following upon the 2008
financial crisis, Barack Obama's
election stunned and frightened a
significant fraction of the GOP
base. Psychologists call it "projec-
tion," the habit of attributing one's
own darkest motives and fears onto
others. Rather than govern.
Republican leaders went with it.
This dreadful spectacle is exactly
what they deserve.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
columnist Gene Lyons is a National
Magazine Award winner and co-
author of “The Hunting of the
President ” (St. Martin s Press. 2000).
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Thankful for piano donations
Dear editor,
Everyone loves to hear the ending'of a story-of a
need taken care of in our community. 1 know there are
many needs and there will always be needs, but it
warms our heart to hear of some of those met.
A little more than a week ago I let our Baytown fam-
ily know of a need for our seniors at Green Acres
Nursing Home for a piano. I was so overwhelmed by
the generosity that was shown. My phone began to
ring at 7 a.m. the morning that my first letter was in the
paper. As the day progressed I had received multiple
calls and by the second day I had been given eight
pianos. What a generous community we live in.
I went to see every one of them. The people were
wonderful to visit with and the stories I heard were so
touching. I was so blessed to be able to pick two of
them. .1 picked one for Green Acres and one for Cedar
Bayou Rehabilitation Nursing Home.
We also do two church services there a month and
they were in need also for a piano that was in good
working condition. To those who offered the pianos,
we would like to thank .you very much. They will be
enjoyed for years to come. You have been a great
blessing to those seniors. God will bless you for this,
for when you bless others you in turn will be blessed.
Thank you for sharing in this blessing with us to
minister to these people. God bless you.
Jeannie Wolff
Baytown
Santorum’s underappreciated voice
' Americans are "looking for a»
president who believes in them,"
, Rick Santorum said on the first day
of his campaign for the Republican
nomination for president, and he's
repeated it many times since.
Santorum’s latter-day surge in
the run-up to the Iowa caucus is
both well earned and ironic. He
tirelessly labored in all counties of
the state. And despite his rock-
ribbed conservatism, which plays
well with similarly minded caucus-
goers, he is, in many ways, just
what voters - tea partiers, occu-
piers of Wall Street, and everyone
in between - seem to uniformly
recoil at: a Washington insider.
He did, after all, serve 16 years
in Congress, in both the House and
the Senate. He’s worked at a think
tank (one of my faves, the Ethics
and Public Policy Center). But in
his sweater vests (which have
taken on a Twitter account of their
own), he speaks about policies that
empower working families and
don’t leave the poor out in the cold,
or perpetually dependent on an
unsustainable state. He points to
the kind of pop- choose between their principles
ulist style that and receiving the government
resonates with funding they need to stay in busi-
people. ness, leaders who don’t compel
And while the taxpayer funding of abortion and
most radical leaders who respect the conscience
activists for cer- rights of voters,
tain, social issues New Yorkers gathered at the
love to paint him Church of the Holy Innocents on
as harsh, there’s that church's namesake feast day to
compassion in pray for the conversion of the
his words and hearts of political leaders; for
views. As anyone who has ever young, scared mothers to have the
made the mistake of Googling his courage to seek out the necessary
name knows, Santorum, a former help to bring their children into the
senator from Pennsylvania, has world and provide for them; for the
been caricatured as something of a healing of those who have been
right-wing bogeyman for decades, hurt by abortion; and for the lives
but his message is not a harsh one. of the unborn. This isn’t a militant'
Take, for instance, his public pro- message, but a loving one, even as
fession of faith. "We want leaders its advocates feel that their mission
who understand that faith is essen- has become increasingly urgent,
tial to the sustenance of democra- This is in large part the message
cy," he told me earlier this year, that Santorum and his family carry
"that faith is an agent for good, that with them. With his eldest daugh-
it protects the weak and defense- ter taking time off from college to
less, that it motives people to con- work on the campaign, and his
front injustice." youngest daughter Bella’s determi-
Leaders, in other words, who do nation to live despite being diag-
not force religious charities to nosed "incompatible with life"
KATHRYN
LOPEZ
more than three years ago as a con-
stant source of inspiration, his is a
message about happiness, restorer
tion and healing in our lives and
our culture - about the fullness of
freedom.and its preservation.
Santorum has a hard-won wis-
dom that only shows up in the long
view. You can see snatches of it
during the Republican primary
debates, when he schools Ron Paul
on foreign policy and America's
obligations to its allies and its own
self-defense. Santorum projects a
self-confidence that is not paternal-
istic, but straightforward and
respectful.
He has the air of authority that
comes with experience, and the
refreshing authenticity of a guy
who is a happy father and husband,
a guy who clearly misses his fami-
ly while on the long campaign
trail.
Even while Santorum is
ridiculed by the left for being a cul-
ture warrior, my own Facebook
page experienced some fireworks
the other day as he was blasted as a
"pro-life fraud" for some endorse-
ments he's made over the years, the
kind one can agree or disagree
with but which also suggest some
appreciation for forming alliances
in an imperfect world - in other
words, for governing.
His is the confidence of a man
for whom experience has helped
generate optimism, the realistic sort
that comes with knowledge of
something greater than oneself and
one’s campaign, even one’s excep-
tional nation. As a person who has
worked with him puts it: "He is a
man who simply loves his work,
without an ounce of cynicism. And
I’ve never heard him say 'no' to a
request, schedule permitting. If it
can be done, he wants to do it."
We are not the ones we have
been waiting for. Nor is Santorum.
Which is precisely why he wakes
up every day and works, and why
Iowa voters see something of what
they’d like to see in Washington
(again) in him.
Kathryn Lopez is the editor o)
National Review Online
(www.nationalreview.com).
Barack Obama
President
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Kay Bailey Hutchison,
Senator
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Yanelli, Adam. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 2, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 3, 2012, newspaper, January 3, 2012; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1063340/m1/4/: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.