John Boehner: The People’s Speaker

Okay, sure, I’d never heard of John Boehner before 2008-09, but then, I was like far too many Americans . . . drifting along, troubled but not too worried about our country (it’s America after all).  And then, well, you know what happened.  So I started watching the news more, CNN at first, then disgusted flipped over to Fox and never looked back.  I’d seen Mr. Boehner on Fox, giving interviews, and I was struck by how calm and soft-spoken he was, but with that undercurrent of steely-strength.  I liked him.  Even if he is a little orange.  But then, I’m not worried about the color of people’s skin. So anyway, with that impression, you can imagine my surprise and delight at seeing him go all out on the floor of the House, trying so hard, so valiantly, so patriotically to stop the healthcare monstrosity (Hell NO! He proclaimed repeatedly.  Yay!).

We watched BO stumble around mumbling and stammering insults and hurtling false accusations not only at the GOP (his “enemies” just as we, the people, are), but at Mr. Boehner himself.  How long did that little campaign against one man, then only the House minority leader, last?  BO, in full campaign mode (shocker), was throwing his weight around as president of the United States of America to attack, openly and publicly, Mr. Boehner.  Of whom most of BO’s fans had never heard, I’m sure, and still couldn’t pick him out of a line up.  Mr. Boehner, attacked by the president, didn’t blink.  He didn’t flinch.  He damn sure didn’t back down.  I cheered.

Then November 2nd came around, and I was over at the ever-wondrous Professor Jacobson’s Legal Insurrection watching Mr. Boehner win, this man I’d earlier learned after intensive research (okay, a quick google search) was from humble, even poor, beginnings, that he was one of many children and had worked very hard throughout his life, often at menial jobs that most of our vaunted members of Congress turn their sneering millionaire noses up at the very thought of.  And he made it all the way to the United States House of Representatives–through hard work and drive and a desire to serve his beloved country.  I knew all this.  So when his voice cracked on the night that he learned he had just been made Speaker of the House of Representatives, that he was third in line for the presidency!, I was touched beyond measure.  I can only begin to imagine how he felt, standing there having achieved at long last his American Dream.  Watching him tear up, watching him try to choke back tears, standing taller, trying not to show emotion on what must have been one of the best nights of his life, my heart went wholly and fully out to him.  I cheered in my living room.  When someone in the LI chat said something that wasn’t very kind about this, I couldn’t stop myself from responding that I felt him to be genuine in his emotion.  And I did.  I still do.

Since that night, he’s reached out to the American people again and again, and he’s spoken up for us.  He “gets” it.  He’s pushing back against the horrors that we are seeing and rejecting, and he’s doing it with such dignity and quiet strength.  And with conviction.  He insisted that the earmark moratorium be enacted (he has never ever taken an earmark himself! Imagine that in the cesspool of corruption and backroom deals that DC has become), and he’s insisted that “the people’s agenda be [their] agenda.”

So when I read this article about how dems were already plotting ways to attack Mr. Boehner with their radical lunatic lies and demonization and a laundry list of dirty, under-handed tricks to make the American people hate Mr. Boehner, I got a bit protective of him.  He’s listening to us, actively seeking our input, and as long as he does that, I intend to stand up for him, to defend him, and to cheer him on.  He needs our support, and we need to make sure we understand what he’s doing and why, so that we don’t make the mistake the sprogs made and start stomping our feet and scrunching up our faces and pounding our fists in rage and disappointment because he doesn’t make all the changes we want in a year (along with sending us each a shiny new unicorn), or even two years, or even four or six (heck, this giant mess may take a decade or more, right?).  And they think they’re going to take him down with their usual bag of nasties?  Not on my watch.

Just like Scott Brown won The People’s Seat, from now on, Mr. Boehner is, to me anyway, The People’s Speaker.  We all know and don’t have to keep saying that he, like all Republicans, is on probation (though a bit of a reminder now and then will keep them honest *wink*), so I’m standing up for and supporting The People’s Speaker.  Not blindly, not like an automaton, not in the koolaid-slurping haze kind of way.  Oh no, I’m supporting him because I actually believe in him, I believe him when he tells us that the people’s priorities will be the House’s priorities (given that it’s just the House, we’ll have to cut him some slack, obviously, but then, we actually understand that).

The People’s Speaker has pledged to listen to us, to go to work for us, to fight for us.  With the people’s support and our voice speaking up for him, correcting lies and distortions, he will do just that.  He strikes me as the kind of person who will take comfort and strength from the support of the people he has pledged to speak for, and he strikes me as someone who will take his pledge very seriously indeed. 

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If you feel like it and see the benefit of supporting this man who is facing not just any run-of-the-mill opposition party challenge but the unholy triumvirate of BO-Pelosi-Reid and their webs of fringe media, union thugs, and who knows what all else, you can follow The People’s Speaker on twitter here and like him on facebook here.