The Rise Of Independents

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

The job for Republicans between now and November of 2010 will be to elect opponents of ObamaCare—which means opponents of Barack Obama—and undo the election results of 2008 and what they wrought.  A growing number of Americans believe they were sold a far-Leftist in “sheep’s clothing,” instead of a relatively-moderate centrist[2], so the task should not be a daunting one at all.

Independents comprise about 35 percent of the American electorate[3], and their ranks may grow even larger in the years to come. They do not care much about either the Republican or Democrat parties. Enough of them hated George W. Bush, and were not enamored with John McCain, that they gave the White House to Obama. Now, enough may turn against the Democrats and Obama to hand victories of a similar magnitude to the GOP.

Obama and the Democrats misread the election results of 2008.  The price they pay in the future may be staggering—and reminiscent of the sea changes that took place in 1968 when Lyndon Johnson was effectively run out of the White House and prevented from seeking reelection, and in 1980 when the Reagan “Revolution” swept into Washington and threw out Jimmy Carter and his ilk.

For many Americans, Ross Perot’s candidacy in 1992 was a breath of fresh air; however, he turned out to be nothing more than a flash in the pan, and he failed to produce anything lasting.  He seemed more enamored with himself than in building a viable and sustainable Independent movement.  In the final analysis, all he accomplished was to deny George H.W. Bush a second term—for deep-seated reasons that are best known to Perot and Bush—and hand the presidency to Bill Clinton.

As the ranks of Independents continue to grow if not swell, it is unlikely that they will be driven by another “savior” like Perot. Most Independents do not have lasting allegiances to either party, albeit most have come from one party or the other—or perhaps both, as I did. They will be seeking like-minded candidates from the “Tea Party” movement or wherever they can be found; and ultimately politicians will not be afraid of running as Independents and defying both established parties.

Some day in the not too distant future, we will see an Independent president; and both houses of Congress will have more and more Independents who are proud to identify themselves as such.  In turn, this may draw both the Republican and Democrat parties toward the center, as they vie for the support of voters, and jettison the extremist elements in their ranks.

First, we witnessed a turning away from the GOP because of Bush, the war in Iraq and the economy. Next, we may witness the abandonment of Obama and the Dems.[4] At some point, there will be a breakdown of our two-party political system; and ObamaCare may have served as an important stepping stone toward achieving that result, and thrusting Independents into the forefront of American politics.

© 2010, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), the first black senator since Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War.  He practices law in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles with his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates (www.naegele.com).  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA, as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He is a member of the District of Columbia and California bars.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal.  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years.  See, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles

[2] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/

[3] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_(voter)

[4] See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/obama-in-afghanistan-doomed-from-the-start and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/barack-obama-america’s-second-emperor and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/emp-attack-only-30-million-americans-survive and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/the-end-of-barack-obama/

The End Of Barack Obama

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Democrat party hack and Bill Clinton sycophant, Lanny Davis, has the chutzpah to assert in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece: “We liberals need to reclaim the Democratic Party.”[2] Davis defends Clinton today as he did during the former president’s impeachment saga, despite the fact that Clinton was and is the equivalent of Tiger Woods morally.  Davis and his ilk are the problem, not the solution.  He and Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, are birds of a feather.  They are the worst of the Democratic Party.

I began as a Democrat, yet I am proud to be an Independent today, as I have been for more than 20 years.  The ranks of Independents are growing dramatically with each election, as they abandon the Democratic Party.[3] It is people like Davis and Emanuel who have turned lots of us away from our former party.  He and his leftist Democrats do not represent us, and never did.  As Ronald Reagan said—who was a former Democrat too: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party.  The party left me.”[4]

Davis has the gall to say: “[W]e allowed the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to morph into the party of George McGovern.”  This is hypocrisy at its lowest. The party of Clinton and Obama is the party of McGovern.  While I did not vote for McGovern—and I never voted for his opponent either, Richard M. Nixon, even though I hail from his home state of California[5]—at least McGovern is a decent and honorable person, and I respect him.  For Davis to defame him simply underscores what a low-life Davis is.

The U.S. Senate triumph of Scott Brown in Massachusetts marked the beginning of the end of Barack Obama as an American politician.  Assuming the elections of 2010 and 2012 follow suit, the president is at best a lame duck. With the demise of ObamaCare, he will simply wait for the end of his presidency in January 2013, and little more—like Lyndon Johnson did as the elections of 1968 approached.  Both Obama and Johnson share the common heritage of failed presidencies and unwinnable wars, in Vietnam and Afghanistan.[6]

The “Change We Can Believe In” is the end of the Obama presidency. He has lied to us repeatedly, and he has deceived us—like Johnson and Bill Clinton did—and it is time for him to go.  The handwriting is on the wall: the Obama presidency is unsalvageable.  Its far-Left tenets are not in step with mainstream America.  The root causes of this lie with the president’s character and his core beliefs.  He is a disciple of the far-Left; and Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. are truly his “soul brothers.”  He has lied to us about them too. What most Americans care about, and believe in, are an anathema to these people.

There is nothing positive that Obama has done since he assumed the presidency; and things are likely to get a whole lot worse before he leaves office.  It has been said: “Jimmy Carter may be heading to #2 on the [list of] all-time worst presidents in American history, thanks to ‘O.’” This is an understatement.  When history is written, Barack Obama may be hated more than George W. Bush has been by the Democrats, more than Bill and Hillary Clinton have been hated by the Republicans, more than Nixon was hated by the Democrats, and even more than Johnson was hated by a broad swath of the American electorate . . . and the list goes on and on.  Obama may emerge as the most hated president in history.

Read (or reread) his book, “Dreams from My Father.”  The president’s beliefs are set forth in his own words, which were written before political “handlers” filtered those words for public consumption. He has never denounced what he wrote.[7] He grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, and he does not share traditional American values.  With the election of Scott Brown, and the earlier election victories of Robert F. McDonnell and Chris Christie to the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, the American people are saying no to Obama and the Democrats. Soon, it will be time to ride them out of town on a rail, politically.[8]

© 2010, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), the first black senator since Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War.  He practices law in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles with his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates (www.naegele.com).  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA, as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He is a member of the District of Columbia and California bars.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal.  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years.  See, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles

[2] See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703837004575013221708478134.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Davis’ comments can be best understood by recognizing that he has been a consistent shill for the Clintons.  In his article, he may be simply staking out Hillary’s position vis-à-vis Obama in the elections to come.

[3] See, e.g., http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704561004575013411330904680.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

[4] See, e.g., http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-reagan,1,2107723,full.story

[5] In later years, I came to admire the former president immensely though, as he demonstrated his mastery of foreign policy and other issues, both in his books and speeches.

[6] While I believe in and admire Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, Afghanistan seems to be a morass politically and militarily.  Yet, I hope and pray that we can succeed in our efforts there, if for no other reason than the future of the courageous Afghan women.  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/obama-in-afghanistan-doomed-from-the-start/

[7] See Barack Obama, “Dreams from My Father” (paperback “Revised Edition,” published by Three Rivers Press, 2004); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/barack-obama-america’s-second-emperor/ and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/obama-in-afghanistan-doomed-from-the-start/ and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ and http://www.philstockworld.com/2009/10/11/greenspan’s-legacy-more-suffering-to-come/

[8] Last but not least, having written what amounts to a political obituary of Barack Obama, I am mindful of the fact that after his obituary was mistakenly published, Samuel Langhorne Clemens—better known by the pen name Mark Twain—sent a cable from London stating: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”