Dent, Lighting the Government on Fire?!

            While completing the budget simulation in class, it has got me thinking pretty intensely about what it’s really like to be a member of Congress. As we played members on the actual budget committee, it seemed almost impossible to come to a compromise. Republicans claimed they were the only ones compromising, but Democrats didn’t see it this way because the only thing Republicans were willing to take money from was the Affordable Care Act. As playing a Democrat myself, we had discussed things we were willing to compromise on and things we refused to compromise on. Unfortunately, those items seemed to be opposite for the Republicans. It was interesting to get a real life sense of what it would be like to be a member of the budget committee and a member of Congress as a whole. As I was thinking about what to write about for this week’s blog post, I thought it would be really interesting to imagine Dent sitting in on that committee and what he would have said. In real life, Dent is on the Appropriations Committee so he must deal with hard decisions like the ones we experienced on a daily basis. With Dent’s recent actions involving the government shut down, I think it would be really interesting to have seen a compromising Republican in the budget simulation. Although I talked about how Dent’s voting record shows him as a strong Republican, I think with all the recent action that Dent has taken place in, he would be willing to come out and compromise on things such as the Affordable Care Act, just like he did when the real government shutdown occurred. One Republican in the simulation mentioned delaying funds for Obamacare for a year, and I know Dent would have come out immediately and turned that down just like he did a few months ago. As I mentioned in my last post, Dent is deviating from his party more often than he ever has before. He voted yes for EDNA, a bill that would add sexual orientation to the list of things people couldn’t be discriminated on in the work place. Gay rights is something that Republicans have been thought to never compromise on, but Dent feels that times are changing and publically supported this bill against the views of his fellow Republicans. Although gay rights is not an issue to the budget committee, it’s just one more instance that Dent is publically coming out against his own party. Because of all these recent deviations, it would be interesting to put Dent on the budget committee and see if he would stay along the lines of his party like the rest of the Republicans were, or if he would actually be willing to give and take and make a compromise with the Democrats.

            With Dent becoming more and more publically moderate, it’s interesting to not only imagine what he would say on that budget committee, but also how people feel about his recent moves. While he does come from a largely moderate district, I found one article that caught my eye. It started with a photo of Dent playing the violin and the White House in the background on fire. The title of the article is “Dent, Just Become A Democrat!” It goes on about how Dent is compromising the Republican Party when he votes on bills involving government expansion and more government spending. Although the author mentions these, he doesn’t go into detail about any of these votes. He cites times when Democrats have funded Dent and when Democrats have hosted things in his name. He continues to mention his disgust with Dent and even mentions that Dent should “just fill out a new registration form,” telling him to “go to the party that is home to his ideology.” After reading this article, at first I half agreed with the guy. I thought, “wow, maybe Dent should just be a Democrat.” But then after reading it again, I realized how unintelligent this guy sounds. He doesn’t realize that Dent votes with his party 90% of the time, which amounts to a majority of the votes. Yes Dent comes out against his party on certain issues, but that is why he calls himself a moderate. The author mentions how Dent needs democrats to keep him in office, and acts as if this is a bad thing. Dent needs both Republicans and Democrats alike to keep him in office; that is why he has tried to match the needs of his district and stay moderate, leaning more Republican most of the time but leaning back towards Democrats during other moments. I see this website as a huge problem; uneducated authors writing these articles are public view to the rest of the country, and if someone as uneducated as the author reads this, it could be trouble for Dent. I think that Dent has to mention his moderate nature in more of his speeches, especially ones to his constituents, so that he does not cause confusion about which party he is leaning towards. I don’t see a compromising Republican as the end all to the government; I see the party polarization as that end all. Dent isn’t lighting the White House on fire, extremists from both sides of the parties are doing that as we speak.

References:

http://www.leadershipforliberty.org/index.php/news-articles/505-dent-just-become-a-democrat