Herman Cain fans around the country received a crushing blow this weekend when the announcement was made that his campaign would be “suspended” – in other words, he’s dropping out and endorsing one of his fellow GOP contenders.
Watching the Cain train come out of nowhere and head to the top of the polls, only to come back down to reality (as many primary candidates have done this cycle), has been an interesting journey to witness. After having a little time to reflect since the Cain Train has come to a halt, I have realized there are three parts of Cain’s platform that will become his legacy – things that he will be remembered for, if he is remembered at all a year from now. These three things also taught me some valuable lessons about the GOP electorate.
#1: When packaged with a catchy name like “9-9-9″, Republicans will be stupid enough to support a new, federal sales tax without even brokering a deal to eliminate the federal income tax! Adding new, federal tax schemes…sounds like a Democrat Party thing to me!
#2: As long as you talk tough on foreign policy issues and promise to “get the jihadists” and continue vast welfarism to Israel, you can get away with anything. Not knowing anything about our current situation in Libya isn’t a big deal. Torture is fine, it’s totally the “American way”, I mean Bush did it and he was elected to two terms. Oh, and the assassination of an American citizen without a trial, congressional approval, or even a lousy notification of the charges against the man is fine too – as long as it is in the name of “security”.
#3: Republican’s no longer want to shrink the size of the federal government by eliminating bureaucratic, unconstitutional departments like Education, HUD, Energy, etc. When mention of eliminating these departments is made at a debate or forum, the Republican audience laughs! Laughs at the idea of shrinking the size and scope of the federal government! It’s like we’re living in an episode of the Twilight Zone! As Herman Cain put it, he doesn’t believe in “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. His opinion is that unconstitutional, unnecessary departments don’t need to be eliminiated, they just need to be tweaked to operate more smoothly.
I personally want to thank Herman Cain for his contribution this election cycle. He opened my eyes even wider to the hypocrisy of the majority of the people in this faux conservative, idiotic political association known as the Republican Party.