By Caraline Rickard, president of Union University College Democrats
Similar to 2006 and 2008, the 2010 election is expected to be another landslide. The difference? This time it is the Republicans who are expected to win big. Why the Democratic losses? President Obama promised us in his 2008 campaign he would fix the economy. Today, we are still feeling a recession, unemployment is up, and the national debt is worse than ever. So where is the fix Democrats promised?
Many feel that replacing the Democrats with Republicans will be the answer. Call me biased, but I disagree. Here is the thing to remember: Democrats have only been controlling government for 18 months. Yes, the national debt has grown in that time. Yes, the Democrat’s policies have contributed. And yes, the Democrats need to control their spending. But they did not dig a $14 trillion hole by themselves in 18 months.
On the day the current Democratic administration and Congress were sworn in, the national debt was $11 trillion, and growing by the minute, before a single Democratic plan went into effect.
Last week, Republicans unveiled their “Plan for America,” which is their agenda should they take the majority in November.
It is full of the same Republican plans implemented throughout the Bush years, when Republican policies turned a $127 billion budget surplus into an $11 trillion deficit. It is common sense: How can the same policies that caused the recession possibly fix it? Americans have a notoriously short political memory, but the problems facing the country today are too important to let short-term memory jeopardize our recovery by putting power back in the hands of the people who caused our problems in the first place.
In Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, Democratic candidate state Sen. Roy Herron is a fiscal conservative who says he has three priorities for Congress: “Cut spending, cut spending and cut spending.” But for Herron, politics is about more than money.
I truly believe no man is better suited to serve the people of the 8th District, the people of Tennessee, or the people of America. Roy has served as a pastor, a lawyer and a state senator. He is an author of three books about God, politics and growing up in Tennessee. He runs a small business and his family’s farm. His values are Tennessee values, and his politics are the same: faithful, common sense, middle-of-the-road, Tennessee-Democrat ideas like those that have dominated West Tennessee political thought for decades.
He has a proven record of leadership, offers little room for attack and has created jobs, balanced budgets, protected prayer in school and gun rights and fought for seniors and children. The Herron family helped found Weakley County in the early 1880s and has spent nearly 200 years building this community. Roy has spent 20 years talking to, getting to know, and faithfully representing them.
The questions facing America today are too big to be gambled on no-experience newcomers like Herron’s opponent, who have no conception of what it takes to face these problems, an expressed unwillingness to work with others to try to help our state and who, prior to this election, have had little interest in the people they will claim to represent.
Our recovery is too important to risk on the same failed policies which created the problems in the first place. Yet again, the Republicans have shown they have no agenda, no new ideas, and no plan to help everyday Americans. We need a leader with a tried and proven record of good, faithful, intelligent leadership and real solutions.
Those solutions lie with Democrats. Roy Herron is that leader.
For a free copy of Roy Herron’s book “God and Politics: How Can a Christian Be in Politics?” or more information on Herron, other local Democrats, or Union University College Democrats, contact uucollegedems@gmail.com.
