Live from Music Row, Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, there was a wonderful story, and it’s kind of in keeping with the times that we have now written by James Freeman in The Wall Street Journal on December 23, and the title was Washington’s 239-year-old Christmas Gift that Keeps on Giving. And what he does is he recounts that on December 23, 1783, Washington formally surrendered his position as head of the army.
When the king heard this would happen, he said, the king said if he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world. And because people who had power just did not voluntarily give it up in those days. John Trumbull wrote from London. He was an American artist living in London.
He said that the resignation “excites the astonishment and admiration of this part of the world its a conduct so novel, so inconceivable to people who, far from giving up powers they possess, are willing to convulse the empire to acquire more.”
And so he goes on. Washington’s army had been discharged and sent home unpaid by a bankrupt Congress without a victory parade or even a statement of thanks for the years of sacrifice and suffering. So let us be clear, there were lots of Adam Kinzinger’s in those days.
Also, Congressman Alexander Hamilton bitterly added in a letter that he had written that he had an indifferent opinion of the honesty of the United States of America. This is back at our founding by Alexander Hamilton. Soon Hamilton was spreading an even lower opinion of Congress.
In December, its members had fled Philadelphia when a few hundred unpaid soldiers showed up and surrounded the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, and demanded back pay of all things. Now, it goes on.
At noon on December 23, I’m quoting here, Washington and two aides walked from their hotel to the Annapolis State House where Congress was sitting. Barely 20 delegates had bothered to show up. This is quite astonishing when you think about what this act was. General Isaias took designated seats in the assembly hall.
The President of Congress Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania began the proceedings. Sir, the United States in Congress assembled are prepared to receive your communications. Mifflin had been one of the generals who attempted to humiliate Washington in resigning during the grim winter at Valley Forge.
He had smeared Washington as a puffed-up egotist, denigrated his military ability, and used his wealth to persuade not a few Congressmen to agree with him. A few months later, Mifflin was forced to quit the army after being accused of stealing millions as a quartermaster general.
And so the point of all this is that General Washington could have easily put his army back together and taken control of the United States. Thomas Jefferson himself said this was one of the greatest acts for the future of our country. Because what George Washington did was voluntarily gave up a power that he could easily have had.
And so I say that because when I look at what’s going on in Washington today, and by the way, the media is having a field day just laughing and thinking how funny this is, saying that Republicans are in a mess, they’re so disorganized, blah, blah, blah. Well, let me say this.
The Politburo is very organized, okay? The Communist Chinese Party under Xi is very organized. Every one of them does exactly what Xi tells them to do. Why? Because if they don’t, they might be killed. So let’s look at how the Democrat Party operates. Every single Democrat is voting for the same guy over and over again.
They voted for Nancy Pelosi over and over again. Now, this goes back similarly to Margaret Thatcher when she took power in Washington. The Labor Party ran the government. The labor unions ran the Labor Party. So the question for me is what concession, what demand should the Republicans who are refusing to vote for McCarthy at this point, demand of him?
And I’m going to give you my answer because it’s one that I believe could be defended. Some people will call it extreme, but the great leaders in history have always succeeded by doing something that even their allies thought could not be done.
What the Republicans should do is demand that Kevin McCarthy agrees publicly that he will not raise the debt ceiling unless Congress and the President do away with public employee unions. That can be defended because it can be explained how the public employee unions as organizations have weakened our country and are destroying our country.
And that can be defended. And then say and put the money that is paid to the unions, put it in their paychecks. We’re not asking. We’re just saying, just get rid of the unions and give that money to the employees. By the way, the media would quit laughing immediately if Kevin McCarthy stood up and made such a bold statement and such a bold promise.
And then it would be up to the Democrats to decide whether or not they wanted to destroy the country by not raising the debt ceiling or protecting their unions, just like had happened with Margaret Thatcher in Britain, and she crushed them.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Kevin McCarthy” by United States Congress. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by Carol M. Highsmith.
Businesswhiners just LOVE to pick on unions public and private, then they head over to a gathering at the Chamber of Commerce, one of the biggest unions of all, albeit a union of businesses.