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About Jamie Johnson
James M. Johnson is the president of the Iowa Republican
Assembly, which works to get constitutionally minded conservatives elected to
leadership positions in the Republican Party, and to elective office on the
local, state, and federal level. He has worked on over 50 political campaigns
and holds an M.A. in public policy with a concentration in political
communication. |
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Past Articles
Election
2010: The Year of Howard Beale |
Jamie Johnson
Election 2010: The Year of Howard Beale
March 24, 2010
On Sunday night, Democrats in the US
House of Representatives hijacked the most effective free-market healthcare
system in the world and subjected it to the chronic failure and bureaucratic
incompetence of the federal government.
In doing so, they have also done something else.
They have nationalized state politics. From the Congress to the county
courthouse, many voters will vote straight-ticket "Republican" simply because of
Obama-Care (and whatever else comes next).
By ramming a federal takeover of one-sixth of
the nation's economy down the throats of an unwilling American public, Democrats
have unwittingly awakened the ghost of Howard Beale, and have turned him lose on
the electorate.
In the 1976 film "Network,” actor Peter Finch
played Howard Beale, a television network news anchor, who, on the verge of a
nervous breakdown, completely "loses it” during a live newscast.
In a rain-soaked trench coat, Beale tells his
viewing audience, "You've got to get mad!...Get up, go to the window, open it,
stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take
this anymore!’” They do. And he becomes an overnight sensation.
Why? Because he knows their frustrations, gives
voice to their anger, and tells them what to do about it. He connects with his
audience, and the network ratings go through the roof.
The unscripted (and unteleprompted) rant touches
a nerve in ordinary people -- people who just want to live quietly, raise their
families, and play by the rules -- but people who, nevertheless, must endure an
economic crisis, soaring living costs, rising taxes, and declining standards of
decency. And his voice becomes their voice.
On Sunday night, the whole 2010 political game
changed. Granted, it was already going to be a Republican year, but it didn't
have to be a Republican tsunami. Now it will be.
Obama-Care is now front and center in the mind
of most Americans. It (or quite possibly the President himself) has become the
object of nationwide rage, or as Ronald Reagan would put it, "the focus of evil
in the modern world." And now, nearly every state and county election will be
nationalized to some degree.
Concern for potholes and bottle bills will give
way to alarm over the monstrous growth of the federal government and the
unconstitutionality of the Obama-Care takeover of the private medical industry.
Candidates will now have to field hotter and
perhaps ruder questions then in past years, because the anger is way more
palpable. Conservatives who speak clearly and boldly can win, even against
entrenched incumbents, if they tap into this rage.
Why, because these are not ordinary times.
America is in crisis, and the times demand a certain type of leader. Now is not
the time for the summer soldier or the sunshine patriot. Nor is the perennial
peacetime leader needed. People today are looking for wartime leaders. They want
Churchills, not Chamberlains.
Not since the Vietnam War have Americans been so
angry and so fed-up with go-along and get-along politicians. They want a new
breed of leader. They want a Braveheart... one who comes to "pick a fight"
against Longshanks.
The Democrats have given the Republicans a huge
gift: a "Get out of jail free" card. The judgment from 2006 and 2008 has passed,
and a new day has dawned.
Anger toward the Democrats is so strong right
now, that the GOP is in a position not only to take back control of Congress but
also many state legislatures and county courthouses.
Republicans had better not blow it this time.
Let us not repeat the spend-a-holic tendencies of the first six years of the
Bush administration. That will only get us back into the wilderness.
I recommend the Howard Beale strategy: get mad,
get up, and speak out. And if necessary, wear a trench coat. |
