I am bothered by the growing sentiment among conservative Christians that all Democrats are bad, all Republicans are good, and all incumbents need to be booted from office. It looks like to me that the Tea Party movement, of which I am a cautious fan, has fed a herd-like, non-thinking mentality among some people. I am particularly concerned about some of the comments I hear from people who assume that incumbency is the unpardonable sin in politics these days. CNN is reporting today that 2/3 of people are unhappy with their legislators from their district. Obviously some of that is more than deserved, but I am fearful we are going to throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.
An example is our local state representative, Ty Cobb, who is a one-term incumbent Democrat. To be clear, I did not vote for him the first time, but I have watched him for two years, live up to his promise to be a conservative, pro-life Democrat. In fact, facing a key vote early last year, I emailed him and was amazed that he not only responded, but came by my office and asked me to pray with him. He then left my office and went to Nashville that day and voted with “us” on a key pro-life issue. Now, the tea party is putting huge support behind his opponent, Sheila Butt, more or less because he is incumbent and because he is a Democrat.
I fully agree that there are incumbents who have failed, but believe it is time for conservatives to quit acting like a lynch mob and make measured, careful, and prayerful use of their political capital. After all, in most places, experience is considered a plus in a job candidate and there has to be a better reason for voting against a guy than incumbency.
Note: I really don’t have a crystal ball and know who is the best woman or man for this job. That is not the point of this post. Please click on the hyperlinks and visit the Tea Party and candidate web sites to educate yourself. Make up your own mind rather than letting Anderson Cooper or Bill O’Reilly or some crazy blogger like me do it for you.
Filed under: incumbency, politics, tea party |
PeteTackett.com 
Pete,I was going through the blogs you have posted on your website and I came across this one dealing with politics. I must confess that I have been one who is fed up with the typical politician and has been ready to get rid of all the incumbents. I appreciate your candor in this article. There are many times that I do not even hear what a democrat has to say just because of their party affiliation. I did not even know that Ty Cobb is a "Pro-Life" democrat. After reading your article, I must say that I now plan on trying to speak to him to get to understand his stance on all the issues before casting my vote this year. Thanks as always for speaking what needs to be said. Kevin Whitmire