Today’s Senate Vote on U. N. Treaty Is a Reminder for Grassroots in VA to Begin Preparing for 2014 Now

Written by:  Scott Cooper
                   

Today at 12:06 P.M., The United States Senate voted on the ratification of the U.N. Treaty, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  The treaty was rejected by a vote of 61-38-1.  It required 66 votes to be ratified, and only 61 yea votes were received.  Thank God!  

For the long list of reasons highlighted in the video at the end of this post, this treaty goes against U.S. sovereignty and the individual rights of our citizens for a whole host of reasons.  It is not surprising that Democrats would vote for this treaty.  What is surprising is that of the 46 Republicans in the U.S. Senate, 8 Republican Senators voted to yield our sovereignty and our citizens rights to an international body, and 1 Republican Senator chose not to vote.  The Republican Senators who voted for this treaty are:

Senator Kelly A. Ayotte (R-NH)

Senator John Anthony Barrasso (R-WY)

Senator Scott P. Brown (R-MA)

Senator Susan M. Collins (R-ME)
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME)

Republican Senator Steven Kirk from Illinois was the only Senator who did not vote.

I believe this vote has significance to the grassroots of Virginia as we begin to prepare for the 2014 U.S. Senate race, and here is why:

When we look at two things:

1.  It is the job of the U.S. Senate to ratify treaties.  Our sovereignty is under attack through international treaties such as the one that was voted on today.  There are a multitude of additional treaties in the pipeline.  We know how Senators Warner, Webb and Senator-elect Kaine will vote.

2.  The United States Senate has not passed a budget in over three years.  Our current Virginia Senators have not attempted to rectify this situation, and I doubt Senator-elect Kaine will do anything to challenge Harry Reid.

Virginia U.S. Senator Warner (D), who is up for re-election in 2014 voted yes for this treaty.  What is disappointing is his willingness to ignore his constituency.  Speaking with his Legislative Aide (LA) yesterday at 3 PM, I am confident that Senator Warner knows the majority of his constituents were opposed to this treaty.  After explaining to Senator Warner’s LA that U.S. disability law is superior to most nations in the U.N., including most of the Security Council nations, she could not articulate why the Senator would be in favor of subjugating American Citizens to this treaty.  She also told me that his decision was not made yet, which simply could not have been true. 

It is imperative Conservatives regain control of the Senate in 2014.  If Virginia is to play a role in defending our national sovereignty and protecting individual liberty in the U.S. Senate, Conservatives and Republicans in Virginia need to do better in 2014.  Clearly our strategy for the last 6 years has not worked. 

Let’s look at a brief history of RPV’s success rate at state wide races for the last 6 years:

Republican George Allen lost our U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Jim Webb, a political novice, in 2006.  George Allen lost the same seat again to Democrat Tim Kaine in 2012.  In 2008, Republican John Warner retired, and a seat which had been held by Republicans for 36 years (held by Republican William Lloyd Scott for 6 years prior to John Warner’s 3 decade reign) was lost by Jim Gilmore to Mark Warner in a vote of 65 % to 33.7 %.  Since 2006 RPV has lost 3 U.S. Senate races and two Presidential races.  What is interesting is there is a lot of blame these days being tossed toward the Tea Party, which didn’t even exist until 2009.  Go Figure.

Let’s look at some trends:

This week U.S. House Republican leadership are doing everything possible to purge Conservatives from leadership positions.  Tactics were used this summer to shut conservatives out of the process at the GOP National Convention, as well as at state conventions across the country.  The result: it helped Democrats across the country get elected, including the Presidential and Senate races in Virginia.  While there is an effort among establishment Republicans to blame the Tea Party, the reality is, it is GOP establishment behavior that is leading to the demise of the party.

 Lessons for 2014:

1.  The Grassroots needs to consolidate behind a conservative candidate for U.S. Senate early on so there is a bold candidate going against Mark Warner.  We struggled doing this in 2012.  It would be nice to think that candidates would see the need to self-consolidate, but there are too many forces working against that idealistic thinking.

2.  The Central Committee of RPV needs to vote to have conventions for the 2014 candidate selection process.  Here is a great piece on why Conventions are better than Primaries. 

      3.  RPV needs to embrace the conservatives who want to help our party abide by our written principles, rather than attempt to exclude them.

There is a tremendous amount of energy in the Conservative movement.  The question is, will the Republicans follow the tactics of the past, or when you look at the U.S. House leadership this week the present, or will they chart a new course? 

My hope lies with the people, not the party.

P.S.  Here is the video with point as to why this was a bad treaty.  This was presented by Michael Farris, Founder of ParentalRights.org, Home School Legal Defense Fund and Chancellor of Patrick Henry College, Senator Mike Lee and Former Senator Rick Santorum.