“We admitted we were powerless over our addiction of spending – that our lives had become unmanageable” (Step One of the 12 Steps)

We know the majority of Democrats, and all liberals, are addicted to spending and big government. Pointing more fingers in that direction is like the guy who gets high on weekends saying, “Just because I blow half my paycheck on cocaine once a week doesn’t make me an addict”.

For most of the last century, there have been too many Republicans who have become addicted to spending as well. Have you heard about those Progressives lately? What does Barack Obama, Meghan McCain, Charlie Crist, Lindsey Graham,  Theodore Roosevelt, and Hillary Clinton have in common? They all either tag themselves with being “Progressive” or hold onto the Progressive ideals that date back to the early 20th Century. Yes, there are the Progressive Republicans- they even have their own place on the web.

The G.O.P. have become known as “the party of no” to the Obama Administration, so they’re obviously on the right track. But they haven’t always been fiscally sane. While liberals have always been big spenders, and creators of bigger government, Republicans haven’t quite been the poster child for sane spending.

Glenn Beck gave the final speech at CPAC this past weekend to a roaring exited crowd. He said what millions of Republicans, and Americans in general, have been thinking. He shook things up, and there are always those who don’t like it when you “rock the boat”.

Conservative pundit, politician, and radio personality Bill Bennett didn’t like the fact that Beck compared reckless spending to an alcoholic in denial. Glenn is a recovering alcoholic himself, so he knows something about denial. But it obviously rubbed Mr. Bennett the wrong way. He wrote in a National Review Online editorial, “Glenn has made that mistake here and taken to our politics a cosmologizing of his own deficiencies. This is not a baseless criticism; they are his own deficiencies that he keeps publicly redounding to and analogizing to. It is wrong and he is wrong.”

Bill Bennett is, unintentionally, making Beck’s point- that Republicans have been in denial. It’s obvious that Mr. Bennett has been living in denial by his reaction to the speech. Mr. Bennett can keep pointing fingers at the Democrats all day long, but if we don’t clean our own “house” and acknowledge and learn from our history- then we will continue to make those mistakes. Republicans have been standing up to the leftwing agenda in Washington, and that is good. But it hasn’t always been that way- and that’s the point Beck was making with his speech. We need to continue to remember history so that we do not make the same mistakes.
The rest of Bill Bennett’s article actually sounds like a defensive alcoholic who can’t admit that there has been a problem in the first place. The purpose of Glenn Beck’s CPAC speech was to acknowledge that America has, for too long been evolving into something that is far from what our country was founded on. And far too many Republicans have become part of that problem- the truth does hurt.

Bennett ends his article by stating that, “The first task of a serious political analyst is to see things as they are…there is a difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. To ignore these differences, or propagate the myth that they don’t exist, is not only discouraging, it is dangerous.”

Is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans? Sure there are. But when we see some of the ear marks in years past, spending programs, and even the list of czars in the Bush administration (35!), it is difficult for many of us to pretend everything has been “fine and dandy”.

Glenn Beck knows that there are differences when you get down to the details. But when we step back and look at the big picture we see a big “tennis match” going on. When we have the G.O.P. putting liberal Republican candidates like Dede Scozzafava in place, it makes us question the G.O.P. When we hear Republicans such as Lindsey Graham talk about carbon taxing, it makes us question the G.O.P. It is ok and proper to question our leaders.

There will always be those who will resist looking in the mirror and acknowledging the problem. But once we acknowledge the problem, and step out of denial- we can move forward. We the People have been moving forward this past year.

It wasn’t the “G.O.P. Tea Party”, or the “Republican sponsored 9/12 March”, or even the “Town hall meeting protest for the G.O.P.). These events, protests, and moments where Americans standing up. While many protesters were Republicans, there were many who were at the other end of the protest who were Republicans. This is why Glenn Beck’s speech at CPAC was so important. Beck’s speech was a reminder to the American people, and , to the Republicans that there is a “cancer” that is just waiting to engulf our nation- and it can live in either political party.