GOP the beneficiary of public discontent

“Pride goeth before destruction,” the Good Book says, “a haughty spirit before a fall.” Republicans learned that proverb the hard way in 2006.

Jonathan Gurwitz of the San Antonio Express News nails it with this column that details how the Democrats are repeating the same pattern that cost the Republicans the last election. Below is an excerpt of his key point. (Click Here to go read the whole thing.)

Democrats swiftly unlearned all the lessons of the GOP's mighty fall. They criticized the prodigal spending of the Bush years, then doubled down on bailouts, clunkers and a pork-laden stimulus. They pledged to clean out the culture of corruption, then protected the leadership positions of John Murtha and Charles Rangel. They said they would keep lobbyists out, then quietly crafted exceptions that put influence peddlers into the Obama administration.

They promised transparency, then slammed the doors shut for back room deals on the most important legislative measure in a half-century. They vowed to post bills online 72 hours in advance, then voted in the dead of night on legislation they had not even read. They talked about an America that was purple, then tried to ram through a true blue agenda that is a radical shift from the constitutional principles of limited government.

The worst mistake, however, was this. In one short year of one-party, supermajority rule, pretentious Democrats have turned every nonconformist into a political enemy.