Sometimes Footwork Can't Save You

This year it looks like there's no place to hide. Moderate Republican US Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) thought he could switch to the Democratic Party and win a sixth term to the Senate. But he was wrong, and was defeated in the Democratic Primary by Rep. Joe Sestak two weeks ago.

Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) thought he could switch from the Democratic Party and keep his seat in north Alabama as a Republican. He was wrong, and was defeated last night in a Republican Primary by "long-time conservative Mo Brooks."

Is it possible that we are looking at a Perfect Storm this Fall? You never know. Here are three reasons why our liberal friends are probably looking at the worst night of their lives.

People don't like the powerful. Our liberal friends have done a remarkable job over the years pretending that it is evil banks and corporations that run the country, and that they are plucky Davids trying to slay Goliath. Sorry chum. But they are deluding themselves. It is liberals that occupy the commanding heights of politics and culture. We are spending 45 percent of GDP on government these days because of liberals. A trillion dollars a year on pensions, a trillion a year on health care, a trillion a year on education, and a half-trillion a year on welfare. You could look it up.

Liberals "have misused the King's press damnably." Shakespeare's Falstaff said it first. At least he was honest. The Greek-American said it better. You don't have power unless you've abused it. And how. I don't think that our liberal friends really understand the damage they have done with their power and their government programs: smashing the low-income family, devastating urban neighborhoods, smashing the nation's finances, politicizing everything (and thus dividing the nation), wrecking education, messing up health care with a rat's nest of subsidies and regulations.

Sometimes, it's time. One of the consolations of religion is that it promises that the evil will get their deserts. Maybe not in this life but in the next one. Abuse and injustice in this vale of tears roll on from year to year, and it seems that the heavens themselves ought to cry out for justice. Sometimes you don't have to wait till the next life for the Last Judgement. All of a sudden, along comes a Perfect Storm. The floodwaters rise, and years of sediment are washed away in a single night. So far, 2010 is shaping up as a year like no other.

Of course, after the Perfect Storm, the problems are still there, maybe worse than ever. But at least the old order has been shaken to its foundations.

Our problems are not that great. We simply spend too much on government and on its supporters. Just about every dollar spent on government is a waste. But the people getting their dollars from the government are well organized. In normal times they can face down the reformers that want to reduce the weight of government on Americans and American businesses.

But then, along comes a year with a Perfect Storm.