The Loyal Opposition

Sometimes, I think that we go too far in assessing ourselves in terms of who or what we oppose, rather than what we support.

At this weekend's [Republican Leadership C]onference, all a speaker had to do was mention a hot-button issue and the crowd would react. The greatest hits: Europeans, ATM machines, global warming advocates, Nancy Pelosi, White House czars, the Federal Reserve, Brazilian oil, and Obama apologizing for America. When Michele Bachmann announced that she was the author of the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, she got a standing ovation.

Whatever happened to the idea that a house divided against itself cannot stand?

It's not that I don't get the dislike that many Republicans have for President Obama, the Democrats, and sometimes, it seems anyone else who isn't a Republican, but running on that as a platform seems to put you in the same spot that, well, President Obama is in. You win the election with masses of people having high-hoped that you'll be the perfect anti-whatever, and then when you (inevitably) can't deliver on those rather stringent expectations, people are angry and frustrated all over again.