Editor’s Note:  On June 3, Allen West wrote on his website, “Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that Barack Hussein Obama’s unilateral negotiations with terrorists and the ensuing release of their key leadership without consult — mandated by law — with the U.S. Congress represents high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachable offense.

“So I call upon the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives; Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to draft articles of impeachment as no one is above the law in America. The failure to do so speaks volumes.”

See: Allen West was for impeaching Obama before he was against it

The following commentary was published April 26, soon after West addressed local Republicans at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

COMMENTARY

“West and his fellow Tea Party zealots fail to realize that compromise lubricates our democracy.  Without adequate lubrication, an engine’s vital components are worn down until, eventually, the engine seizes up.  So it is with democracy.”

MARK SCHUMANN

When I turn my shower faucet handle ever so slightly, out comes a trickle of cold water. If I move the handle any further, the water turns scaling hot.

Listening to former congressman Allen West address a gathering of local Republicans last week, it occurred to me that much like the malfunctioning temperature regulator on my shower faucet, about all we hear from politicians today is rhetoric that is either icy cold or scalding hot.

All but gone is the moderate middle, for few contemporary politicians are also statesmen willing and able to chart a course between the increasingly fictional narratives of the loony left and the radical right

Asked what it would take to motivate competing factions within the Republican Party to work together, West dismissed the need for collaboration and compromise. “It’s not about compromise. It’s about leadership,” he said.

West seems to envision the emergence of a savior — a compelling, persuasive leader, (possibly even himself), who will deliver the nation from the horrible fate of settling on middle ground. This new political messiah, West proposes, will skillfully present an overpowering case for embracing the Tea Party agenda.

West may be well intentioned, but he is sorely mistaken if he believes America’s leaders can effectively address the nation’s most pressing challenges by pushing forward an agenda that is not first broadened, deepened and strengthened through consensus building and compromise.

West’s own unique experience in the military may have led him to believe the expedient way to persuade someone to do as you wish is to fire a gun near their head, (See: U.S. officer fined for harsh interrogation tactics), but it is indeed puzzling to hear the former one-term congressman seriously suggest a leader immune to the “disease” of compromise can save us from political gridlock.

Considered by some a leading spokesperson for the Tea Party, a conservative icon and the “Scourge of the Far Left,” West has a way of reinventing recent history. To hear the self-described “Guardian of the Republic” tell it, the 1964 Civil Right Act was passed, not through skillful political maneuvering and arm twisting by President Lyndon Johnson, but solely as a result of the statesman-like and courageous vote of Everett Dirksen, a Republican Senator from Illinois. Both are true, for Johnson and Dirksen worked together when they could. Does West not realize he is lifting up as commendable an example of the kind of bi-partisanship he also now dismisses as unnecessary?

Obama Administration policies, West claims, have led to the crisis in Ukraine. While decrying America’s declining military capabilities, West made no mention of the lives and resources squandered in an ill-advised invasion, and for years poorly executed occupation of Iraq.

Deleted from West’s version of recent history is any reference to the Bush Administration’s unwillingness or inability to prevent Russia’s 2008 invasion of the Republic of Georgia. That same year, the financial markets all but collapsed under Bush’s watch. West avoids addressing this inconvenient truth.

They say that in the court of public opinion perception is more important than reality, and that what is believed to be true is more important than what is actually true. Embracing these ideas may be how West justifies his revisionist history.

West is now crisscrossing the country speaking and promoting his new book, Guardian of the Republic. For his sake, I hope he sells some books. For the sake of the country, I pray he is not taken too seriously by too many.

If West hopes to be considered a thoughtful statesman by an audience broader than the Tea Party, he would do well to more closely follow the example of Everett Dirksen. Dirksen dropped out of the University of Minnesota Law School in 1918 to join the U.S. Army, serving as a second lieutenant during World War I.

A Republican, Dirksen represented the Land of Lincoln in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1933 to 1949. From 1951 until his death in 1969, he served in the U.S. Senate, the last ten years as Minority Leader. There Dirksen helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Before casting his vote against an attempt to block the Civil Rights Act through a Senate filibuster, Dirksen quoted Victor Hugo, “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.”

Dirksen continued, “The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.”

Partly because of the intransigence of the Tea Party, such bi-partisanship as Senator Dirksen practiced is all but unheard of today.  West may think he is serving as a “Guardian of the Republic,” but it seems more likely his take-if-or-leave-it, all-or-nothing style of leadership is an impediment to progress.

West and his fellow Tea Party zealots fail to realize that compromise lubricates our democracy.  Without adequate lubrication, an engine’s vital components are worn down until, eventually, the engine seizes up.  So it is with democracy.

See Also:  Hey, political zealots, listen carefully to a conversation from 1963