I went to the Cobb County GOP breakfast yesterday to see Johnny Isakson speak. This was the rescheduled appearance after he had to cancel his appearance at December’s meeting. I arrived around 7:30 and was about the tenth person to get in the door. Instead of going straight for the food line, I went for prime seating because I wanted to be able to record video of his speech. (I’ll have that online as soon as I can.)
The speech wasn’t particularly wonderful; it was just the typical political stuff you’d expect to hear. He left a lot of time for questions (to his credit, because I really didn’t think he would do that), but he didn’t get a whole lot of challenging questions. One was about why he voted to confirm Eric Holder, but other than that, they were pretty much slow pitch softball style questions. (This is probably because the Cobb GOP Chairman was choosing who got to ask questions.)
The final question was from a guy in the center of the room. This is what he said:
What I’ve noticed with you, Senator Isakson, is that every time it comes election time, you come here and you want to speak about free markets, and you want to speak about freedom and personal liberty; yet when you go to Washington, your voting record clearly betrays that.
You are clearly not in favor of individual liberty or free markets, you believe in the secrecy of the Federal Reserve, you believe in subsidizing, taxing what you like or don’t like; you believe in government intervention in the housing market; you believe in government intervention in education.
I’m wondering, when will you come clean and admit that your true political philosophy is Marxist-Leninism?
Well, as you may suspect, that didn’t go over so well with the crowd, and the Chairman got to a point where he was yelling “I am the Chairman, and you don’t have the floor!” while people in the crowd were booing the questioner.
I was embarrassed by it all, and I agreed with most of what the questioner had to say. The problem was in how he handled the opportunity.
Despite what may seem obvious to some, Johnny Isakson is not intentionally destroying our dollar, our freedom, or our families’ future; he is doing what he believes to be the right thing. Granted, he’s a big-government Republican who is dead wrong most of the time, but he’s doing what he thinks is right.
As his constituents, we have the opportunity (responsibility, even) to challenge him where he’s wrong. And though he’s wrong so often, it’s important to remember that we’ll catch more flies with honey than we will with vinegar. Calling Senator Isakson a Marxist in front of 200 Republicans isn’t going to win us his attention. We’ve got to have an open dialog with him, where we can respect each other and voice our concerns.
I’ll be the last guy in the room to call Johnny Isakson a good Senator, but if we expect to have our voices heard, we must use better judgment when addressing our concerns. Otherwise, we’ll just be that crazy bunch in the corner to which nobody really pays any attention.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Someone please explain this about Isakson, I did not read all of the above but what I did read he is a mess.
I thought he was against abortion, big govt spending and all that. Could I have a list of his bad points because from what I thought I read on his voting record, thought to be a decent guy. Thanks for any clarifications.
Have a great Day,
Tommy W.
As much as I agree with you about catching more flies with honey than vinegar, there have been times when I wanted to say something like that to Johnny’s face. I know it isn’t very productive, but it would give me some personal satisfaction, lol.
I think Johnny’s problem is that he has simply been in D.C. too long (a lot of people on Capitol Hill have that problem). They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and so even for Isakson’s sake, I think he needs to take a break and get back in touch with his constituents. I do think he is well-intentioned, but he doesn’t seem to be looking long-term on a lot of issues (another problem running rampant in D.C. right now). We members of the Republican party seem to have a serious problem too, and that is the lack of the will to critcize our party leaders when we are in the majority, and that is when criticism is MOST NECESSARY. I continue to believe that the democrats obtained their supermajority in the Senate—not because they had a better platform, but—because the Republicans failed to deliver on theirs. It isn’t that hard to maintain a limited government if you abide by the U.S. Constitution and stick to those powers explicitly set forth in the document. Pat Buchanan described the Republican party’s woes accurately when he stated, “The Republican party needs to stop trying to be ALL THINGS to all people, and try to be ONE THING to all people.” Johnny has definitely played dual roles and it is costing this nation dearly in terms of lost liberties and lost prosperity.
On the side note, I like this website.
Interesting material. Who taught you those unique journalistic skills. I only went through the 8th grade.
A word to the wise; never publish incorrect material about anyone because “All” sites are tracked; and never speak against a U.S. Senator, especially Mr Isakson, and I do hope you do not live inside the state of GA because that could get real nasty. Besides all that: Have a nice day, I will keep in touch.
Maybe we could join forces if we shared the same view. What’s your input on Pres Obama?
Thanks,
HillBilly
I think you are just a Democrat.
Johnny I-SUCK-son is not a Marxist, but he is a Liberal/Socialist Republican which means he is a Repubic. He should change parties like Arlen Sphincter and align himself with the Democraps. He is much more of a Democrap than freedom loving Conservative.