Why Chris McDaniel Is The Man We Need In Washington

“You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies,” wrote a French novelist in 1853. By this standard, Senator Chris McDaniel should be worth a heckuva lot to the people of Mississippi.

Recently, Sela Ward, a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress, traveled to Jones County to campaign for her husband, Howard Sherman, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat held by Roger Wicker. In a speech that was supposed to tout her husband’s candidacy, and at least some of it did, she couldn’t help but take a shot at McDaniel and on his home turf no less.

First, explaining that the maximum donation the couple made to Roger Wicker last year was simply to “stop McDaniel,” Ward went on to explain why. “He stands for everything we are against,” she said.

So what could that be? McDaniel is a self-described “Son of Mississippi,” exhibiting the values and ideals of the common folk. He routinely wins his state senate elections by more than 85 percent of the vote. He’s passionately pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-liberty, and pro-heritage. My advice would be that since Ward and her husband are the polar opposites of these issues, they shouldn’t give up their day jobs.

But much of the hatred and hostility directed toward McDaniel comes not from the other side, and even from those who are no longer a potential opponent, but from his fellow Republicans. As G. K. Chesterton wrote in 1910, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”

Indeed, the nastiest invective hurled McDaniel’s way is often from the GOP, who are supposed to be members of his own political family. Everything from Phil Bryant calling him as “opportunist,” to an unnamed source saying that he is “so hated by his colleagues,” McDaniel has had a target on his back since 2013 when he challenged Thad Cochran. Mitch McConnell loathes him and is gearing up to try to take him out this November.

In the most recent dustup, McDaniel was attacked by his fellow Republicans for supporting Senator Rand Paul’s recent “Penny Plan” that would balance the budget in five years. Sid Salter and other so-called “experts” mocked Paul’s plan as a “gimmick” and nothing more than a “show vote” that was never meant to bring true reform. But that’s what the Establishment says about every conservative fiscal plan.

Paul’s plan has some serious merit to it, which McDaniel heartily approved of. It slows down the rate of growth, which is crucial to any budget plan (a proposal that McDaniel favors), and cuts a paltry one percent from federal spending. But because of the slower rate of growth, spending is reduced by $404 billion next year (remember we have a $985 billion projected deficit for FY 2019) and more than $13 trillion in the next decade, generating a $700 billion surplus by the tenth year, and all without touching Social Security. And spending is still increased by 14 percent in that same decade. But it received just 21 votes, with both of Mississippi’s US Senators voting against it.

But, if the Paul plan is so bad, where is their plan? At least Rand Paul has a plan, supported by the most conservative members of the Senate, while Establishment Senators like Wicker and CHS have proposed nothing at all. Just like Cochran before them. Wicker made no comments about his vote but Hyde-Smith said didn’t support it because it was “business as usual.” A head-shaker of a comment to be sure.

So, Hyde-Smith works to keep us in fiscal insanity and she is praised. McDaniel supports plans to cut spending and balance the budget and he’s denigrated. This is how far off the cliff we have driven in this country.

Having this kind of hatred directed at him from the Establishment should tell us a lot. For her part, Cindy Hyde-Smith, appointed to fill Cochran’s seat until the election in November, recently said of her new experience in Washington that everyone has been “so receptive, been so kind and welcoming.”

One can’t image Chris McDaniel saying such a thing if he makes it to the US Senate, because he won’t be. But for McDaniel, he has said repeatedly that he is not going to Washington to make friends or attend fancy cocktail parties in Georgetown. He’s going to work for limited government and a restored Constitution.

The Establishment does not, I repeat, DOES NOT want to fix America’s problems, or they would have done it already. DC Republicans, including Wicker and Hyde-Smith, are no more eager to truly balance the budget than the man in the moon. They simply can’t slow down the growth of government and slice off one percent of spending. And remember, this is what Republicans fought FOR in the 1990s under Newt Gingrich.

So, is this why the Establishment – the DC Swamp – loves Cindy Hyde-Smith and hates Chris McDaniel? You betcha! And that’s why we need Chris McDaniel in Washington, to do our part for a balanced budget, fiscal sanity, and a restored republic.