The Movement You Need…

When I was a young political pup, I served as Congressman E. Clay Shaw’s campaign finance director. I first began to admire the man because of the compassion shown by his staff in helping me care for my mother after she was seriously injured in a kitchen fire that ultimately led to her death - they helped me quickly navigate byzantine Medicare and Social Security paperwork processes that mom and I had spent months flailing at in frustration. In gratitude for his playing a part in making her final months less stressful, I offered to volunteer on his campaign and persistently called to ask “is there anything I can do to help you yet?” His response was to entrust in me a vital portion of his re-election operation. At 24, I was very green and didn’t yet have a fully-formed set of political values. Today, a big part of who I am and where I stand politically is a result of following Clay Shaw’s lead. I will always be thankful and will forever admire him.

Sadly today, Clay Shaw is just a regular citizen again.

Last night, he was swept aside in a monumentally stupid voter reaction to incomprehensibly stupid leadership at this nation’s highest levels. And for that, I blame a part of the Republican Party that has in large part abandoned its conservative core. Yes, I’ve grown more conservative as I’ve gotten older. I’ve gotten more conservative because I see myself as a concerned parent prudently looking to his ancestors for guidance as this nation’s future foundation is laid - the one my daughter will inherit. Maybe today I’m more Conservative than my old friend now leaving Congress. Maybe.

This loss by the Republicans in Congress is not a loss caused by Conservatives. It is a loss caused by pretenders. Call them what you want, neocons, neo-Wilsonians, neo-Three-Stooges…these people, these BIG GOVERNMENT “republicans” (they don’t deserve the capitalization), do not represent me. And I’m quite sure that both of my parents, whose values I adore, would find these pretend-conservative “leaders” to be virtually without worth and would at a certain level be pleased by yesterday’s repudiation. But I also know this: They would be aghast at the notion of this morally unkempt creature Pelosi being made Speaker of the House.

It’s just a damned shame that my friend, Clay Shaw, had to be the fall guy for this bunch of starched-shirted buffoons who populate the beltway and remain ignorant of - or perhaps worse, disdainful for - the pulse of the prescriptively Conservative class, deep with ancestral ties to its founders, that still makes up a large part of this nation.