It's Groundhog Day

Jay Mielke

It’s Groundhog Day! Ever since Bill Murray starred in the movie “Groundhog Day” seventeen years ago, I’ve looked forward to February 2nd not for the prediction of a rodent somewhere on the other side of the country, nor for the repetitive dribble in the media about the origins of this tradition or the reminder of what the sighting of a shadow means. Nope, for me it is a chance to repeat popular quotations from Phil Conner, the weatherman in “Groundhog Day” played by Bill Murray.

If you haven’t seen the movie, the movie is about a TV weatherman, his producer, and a cameraman that are sent to Punxsu­tawney, PA, to cover the annual Groundhogs Day festivities. Phil Conner would rather be anywhere else but at Gobbler’s Knob and he makes no attempt to hide his sour attitude during the filming of the event. His bitter disposition only gets worse when a blizzard traps him and his crew in Punxsutawney over­night. Forced to stay at a local bed and breakfast, Phil wakes up the next morning to find that tomorrow never came, he is forced to live Groundhogs Day over and over again. Each day he reacts to the same series of events differently. He learns about other people who repeatedly believe they are meeting him for the first time.  Phil spends his days searching for ways to win the heart of his producer Rita and, at one point he attempts to explain his predicament to her, “I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it’s always February 2nd, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

That quote popped in my head Saturday morning during the annual county caucus when the keynote speaker, Brian Schimming, said, “the Democrats have found themselves in the doghouse. But it’s a big doghouse and we beat them there.” How true those words are. We’ve been in the doghouse since 2006 and a year of bumbling incompetence by the Democrats does not necessarily translate into a ticket out of that doghouse for us.

“When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life,” pronounced the weatherman. For us that bleak and dark winter began in 2006 and we lived our own Groundhog Day over and over again losing election after election. Similar to Phil Conner’s one day entrapment filled with the same activities and a quest to end the time loop, we groped for solutions to our political exile: shall we move to the left? Should we abandon our beliefs of a smaller government and just tax a little bit less than the Democrats? Perhaps we can abandon any meaningful discussion of global warming: hey, anything for the environment, right? Maybe we should try to expand our voter base through amnesty or woo seniors with our own Republican-branded drug programs. Our tag line can be, “Try the Republican brand, it’s just like the Democrats but without the nasty side-effect of actually satisfying a voter block.”

The cataract of our vision was seeded from our abandonment of fiscal responsibility and grew as conservatives gave up on the party. Untethered from a grassroots effort to hold elected Republicans to the party platform, Americans watched as some of the Republican officeholders reveled in making deals with the left over everything from Supreme Court nominations to blatant First Amendment violations—and all of these deals were well greased with the lubricant of afterhours cocktails and signed with the ink of earmarks.

“This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype.” Phil sneered. After a year of no hope or change voters are signaling their desire to reign in a government growing out of control. The problem is: recent Republican victories are more of a reaction to the short-term imbalance of power in Washington and not necessarily a stamp of approval on the Republican Party. Our ticket out of the doghouse can be purchased with the currency of fiscal responsibility—and that doesn’t mean simply spending less than the Democrats. Our candidates, if we are to be successful, must articulate concrete plans to solve some of our country’s biggest challenges: Social Security, Medicare, deficit spending, healthcare, and the constant drain of jobs out of our state and out of our country. We cannot be just about “no” we must also be about “know.” Fortunately, we have the best congressman in the house right here in our own district. The man with the plan: Paul Ryan.

Paul has consistently produced well thought-out solutions to these complex problems. Those candidates seeking to represent us on the Republican ticket, if they are to successfully connect with voters battered by extended economic hardship, will be wise to bring fresh ideas to the races and articulate them fully. But it will take more than great candidates to turn things around. They must have the support of a strong grassroots organization to carry their message and to keep them grounded in reality when they win their races.

“Today is tomorrow. It happened.” It will happen. We have some strong candidates in most races. A complete listing of candidates is available at anytime on our web site: www.rockcountygop.com/candidates.html. We opened up a local headquarters to support the candidates at 121 West Milwaukee Street in Janesville. The headquarters is staffed by volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, email me for volunteer opportunities. The combined Rock and Walworth County Lincoln Day Dinner over the weekend was one of the biggest if not the biggest Lincoln Day Dinner in the state of Wisconsin this year and we expect to host an even bigger dinner next year; keep February 12th reserved. Tomorrow will come, be part of it. If you have not yet renewed your membership, now is the time to support the rebirth of our movement and end this political Groundhog Day.