In the past few months we have had several candidates for the republican nomination jump into the primary race. Some of which are newly involved in politics, some have never been involved in any sort of politics. And it is the newly elected ones, namely the junior senators join the race who are creating the most ‘hot air’, if you will.
I am talking about Senator’s Rubio, Cruz and Paul. All of whom are great speakers, hold up well in interviews (most of the time). But when it comes to legislative accomplishments and a record of their own, they are lacking a great deal.
They have only been in the senate since the Tea Party wave of 2010, and have never put anything forth, partisan or bipartisan, in way of legislation. They have not even given any solid policy ideas in their campaigns. They just revolve around rhetoric and talking points.
And a thing that I know, is that after a few months, the grassroots that have swelled among each candidate in the excitement for their bid, will not hold. That is because after a time they will want to hear more than their crowd roaring speeches and applause one liners. They will want to hear solutions to their problems. You cannot have a campaign that is based and run on pure rhetoric. You have to put real policies and solutions in place. Something for everyday Americans to see. Like a real lawn, you have to give it what it needs to grow and thrive, because if it gets nothing but hot air, then it withers and dies. And you end up with nothing. After all, the grassroots is what fights for you and get’s you elected, contrary to popular beltway belief.
I already see it happening with Ted Cruz. I’ve heard from friends nationwide that his supporters and grassroots leaders have left after becoming disappointed in his campaign.
Sen. Paul is making mistakes already, ones that probably are not yet noticed. He made a big deal of filibustering and railing against the renewal of the Patriot Act, and succeeded in running out the clock. But once it came to a vote and it was renewed on June 2nd. But there has been no peep from the senator. Though he has moved on to going after the classified 9/11 files. Not the best actions, and they will haunt him going forward.
And this will cause many to flock away to other candidates in the race who are actually putting forth solutions, and look to have a vested interest in the trials and struggles of all Americans.
This is also the problem with newly elected senators, which is a lesson which I thought we would have learned in 2008 when we elected a junior senator from Illinois. They are to green and don’t have a record of accomplishment to show the American people. Instead they give standing ovation worthy speeches.
But the rhetoric and crowd roaring speeches wont mean anything when they are in the oval office faced life and death situations, real situations, on a daily basis. One thing the past seven years has taught us very well is that the oval office is not the place for on the job training.