When you consider Az GOP State leadership in January and you begin following the newly elected Elephants in the House, keep this perspective in mind.  This is an excellent observation.  Tea Parties here’s your notice. Republican Party, with the attitudes of the senior members of the Arizona delegation how can history not be on the verge of repeating itself?

This applies to Phoenix as well as Washington.  Will the barbarians become Republicans?

Reprint from the E.A. Courier; submitted to SA by a reader in Pima, Az.   Thank you.

Civilizing the barbarian horde

The ancient Chinese believed that China was “the sea that salts all rivers.”  That’s a very poetic way of saying that barbarians may come and go, but it’s they who became Chinese, not the Chinese who became barbarian.

Back in 1994, the Republican Party won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.   “New” Republicans were elected to rein in a federal government that had gotten too big, too expensive and too intrusive.   Over the next three election cycles, the more “radical” members of this group committed to change were sent packing by their own party or lost to Democratic challengers.   A few just up and quit, realizing that Washington is beyond reformation.   What happened?

Too many of those new faces took their appointments too seriously.   They wanted change to happen now. But they were told to be patient. Washington’s excesses took the better part of the 20th century to create; it would take time to unwind all that excess.   With a Democrat in the White House, better to build a veto-proof Congress before trying to rock the welfare-state boat too much.

The press corps mused over Newt Gingrich as though he was some sort of missing link.   Most of them had never seen a Republican Speaker, so most everything he said was completely alien to their way of thinking.  Gingrich made a revealing statement about the shape of things to come under Republican leadership.   In an interview he identified FDR as the greatest president of the 20th century.    So much for any “revolution” to end the modern welfare state.

Now that career-minded Republicans chaired all the committees, set the legislative agenda and controlled spending, they didn’t really want to change the status quo.   Maybe change later, but first, suckle the fat sow and take care of the folks back home.   The “barbarians” were forced to stand down and wait.   Over time, many were absorbed into Washington’s culture of profligacy.   Those who didn’t were sent packing.

Fast-forward 16 years and there’s a new horde of barbarians soon to enter the gates of Congress.  The Republican Party wouldn’t be preparing to take control of the House and increase its presence in the Senate without the Tea Party.  But Tea Party supporters should be realistic about expectations of change.

The old-guard Republican Party has been entrenched in Washington culture for many years.  It now has more in common with the Democrats than these upstart “radicals” in their own party.  The Republican leadership will quickly move to undermine the impact of Tea Party members.  It will divide and conquer the meek, and marginalize the outspoken.  As an AP post recently said, Republican leaders will do their best to “integrate” Tea Partiers “into the GOP caucus.”

That’s another way of saying “civilize the barbarians.” Washington culture wouldn’t have it any other way.