Let’s quickly review recent history. Republicans held the Congress and the White House but fail to govern successfully because they walked away from their Party’s Platform principles. Why did they do that? At times it was because of corruption, or timidity or incompetence; at times, all of the above.
Now, one of the U.S. House members from that illustrious era wants you believe that he’s just what Illinois Republicans need in the U.S. Senate. If you didn’t see CBS’s 60 Minutes this past Sunday you missed a terrific segment about con men. Republican voters should be careful to avoid getting fooled again.
In talking about the recent Wall Street collapse and financial scandals like the one involving Bernie Madoff, CBS’s Morley Safer said of the investors involved:
“But these guys are smart guys. They’re all graduates of the finest business schools…”
But they were duped anyway. Safer went on to say:
“All of which proves that whether you’re on Wall Street or Main Street, brain power is no defense against con men. In fact, smart guys may be the biggest suckers of all.”
Then the 60 Minutes piece went on to quote Ricky Jay, a person they described earlier in the segment as “a man with an encyclopedic knowledge of con men past and present”:
“As someone who does sleight of hand for a living, to me, the ideal audience would be scientists or Nobel Prize winners who are incredibly smart in their one area, and often – often, not always – have an ego with them which says ‘I am really smart so I can’t be fooled.’ No one is easier to fool.”
There were a lot of people that were not fooled by Bernie Madoff but they weren’t listened to.
He’s right. And the parallel of Republican voters – and donors – being fooled by faux Republicans is obvious. At times, the most difficult people to convince of the folly of not learning from the Bush-Hastert years are the people who pay attention but unfortunately don’t take into account what are often the unintended consequences of elevating those who shouldn’t even be in our party.
Here are some of the most popular lines:
“We’ve got to win first.”
“Any Republican is better than a Democrat.”
“No candidate is perfect, and the perfect is the enemy of the good.”
“Kirk is the best the Illinois GOP can do.”
Listen friends, the challenges we face today are much worse than they were when the Republicans took the Congress in 1994, worse than when they won the White House in 2000 and 2004, and a lot worse after each two-year cycle since then.
If you really think we’re going to get a better result from the Mark Kirk Republican types now when they couldn’t even lead when things were relatively better, you and I will have to agree to disagree.
Does this mean we have to wait to elect the perfect candidate? Obviously not – but if you’re willing to support a partial-birth abortion supporting Republican (in additional to all the other issue errors by Kirk), then you have no standards.
Click here to view the 60 Minutes segment:
Pigeon Fever: Ponzi Schemes Still Thriving
Morley Safer Takes a Look at Why People Are Too Trusting and Gullible
Up next: Part 3.
