Michele Bachmann: Undeterred and undiminished

  • By Cal Thomas
  • Monday, February 17, 2014 8:24pm
  • Opinion

With less than a year left in her fourth and final term in Congress, it’s a little early for an exit interview, but not too early to get the views of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on issues dear to a “founding mother” of the Tea Party movement and on how to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, if the Democrat decides to run.

Bachmann remains confident and resolute despite many political setbacks. We met in her office while much of Congress was fleeing the Capitol Building ahead of a major storm that eventually dumped a foot of snow on Washington. The snow was a big deal to residents of the nation’s capital, but little more than flurries to a Minnesotan like Bachmann.

Bachmann is made of sterner stuff and has time and time again stood up for her social and economic principles, refusing to compromise on them despite sometimes strong opposition from within her own party’s leadership.

She retains her Christian and conservative worldview, calling it a “grid” through which she sees everything. I note that a majority of her colleagues and much of the rest of the country seem to have a different “grid” and cite as examples the growth and cost of government and the failure of conservatives to slow what they regard as the cultural slide.

“That’s the reality we work in, but so what?” she says. “That doesn’t deviate from my responsibility … but you continue to have to go forward, even if you don’t see the results.”

Why does she think little has stopped the cultural slide, even when Republicans control all three branches of government, as they did for a time during the George W. Bush administration?

“It’s because of their worldview,” she responds, implying it isn’t enough to be a Republican, or even conservative. For a truly conservative agenda to advance, she believes, voters will have to send to Washington more people with a biblical worldview. That is a difficult task, given the growing secularization of the country, especially; it appears, among the young. She acknowledges “politics is downstream from culture. It merely reflects what is going on (in society).”

If Republicans nominate a male presidential candidate in 2016, how should he run against Hillary Clinton, if she is the Democratic nominee?

Bachmann was the only female GOP candidate in the race when she ran for president in 2012. She says, “Two things that need to be done: Remind people (Clinton) is seeking to become commander in chief (and look at) how she has operated in the past with these types of responsibilities. She was in charge during the Benghazi debacle. If a person reads the Senate Intelligence (Committee) report and the House Foreign Affairs (Committee) report released (last) week, it is damning for Hillary Clinton.”

Bachmann says Clinton testified before Congress that she was “aware” of the deteriorating conditions in Benghazi but did nothing. “She has a real problem when it comes to Benghazi,” says Bachmann. Clinton, she adds, must answer for what happened.

In addition, she says, Clinton is “the godmother of Obamacare,” trying “behind closed doors” to push through something similar when Bill Clinton was president.

Maybe such an approach will work, but would the lure of the “first female president” overcome these concerns in voters’ minds? Bachmann says: “Effectively she would be Obama’s third and fourth term in office.” That might scare enough people to vote for the Republican nominee.

Bachmann says a lot of people “aren’t ready” for a female president. “I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt.” (Presumably she means because of slavery and the lengthy denial of civil rights to blacks.) “People don’t hold guilt for a woman,” she says, adding that while people vote for women for virtually every other office “I don’t think there is a pent-up desire” for a woman president.

She says while Obama was “new and different,” Hillary Clinton has been around a long time and is less likely to stir the juices as Obama did.

It may be time to test that theory.

Readers may e-mail Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.

More in Opinion

This image available under the Creative Commons license shows the outline of the state of Alaska filled with the pattern of the state flag.
Opinion: Old models of development are not sustainable for Alaska

Sustainability means investing in keeping Alaska as healthy as possible.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy unveils proposals to offer public school teachers annual retention bonuses and enact policies restricting discussion of sex and gender in education during a news conference in Anchorage. (Screenshot)
Opinion: As a father and a grandfather, I believe the governor’s proposed laws are anti-family

Now, the discrimination sword is pointing to our gay and transgender friends and families.

Kenai Peninsula Education Association President Nathan Erfurth works in his office on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Voices of the Peninsula: Now is the time to invest in Kenai Peninsula students

Parents, educators and community members addressed the potential budget cuts with a clear message.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy holds a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. (Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: An accurate portrayal of parental rights isn’t controversial

Affirming and defining parental rights is a matter of respect for the relationship between parent and child

t
Opinion: When the state values bigotry over the lives of queer kids

It has been a long, difficult week for queer and trans Alaskans like me.

Dr. Sarah Spencer. (Photo by Maureen Todd and courtesy of Dr. Sarah Spencer)
Voices of the Peninsula: Let’s bring opioid addiction treatment to the Alaskans who need it most

This incredibly effective and safe medication has the potential to dramatically increase access to treatment

Unsplash / Louis Velazquez
Opinion: Fish, family and freedom… from Big Oil

“Ultimate investment in the status quo” is not what I voted for.

An orphaned moose calf reared by the author is seen in 1970. (Stephen F. Stringham/courtesy photo)
Voices of the Peninsula: Maximizing moose productivity on the Kenai Peninsula

Maximum isn’t necessarily optimum, as cattle ranchers learned long ago.

(Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: The time has come to stop Eastman’s willful and wanton damage

God in the Bible makes it clear that we are to care for the vulnerable among us.

Caribou graze on the greening tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska in June, 2001. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: AIDEA’s $20 million-and-growing investment looks like a bad bet

Not producing in ANWR could probably generate a lot of money for Alaska.

A fisher holds a reel on the Kenai River near Soldotna on June 30, 2021. (Photo by Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Voices of the Peninsula: King salmon closures long overdue

Returns have progressively gone downhill since the early run was closed in June 2012

(Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: Fixing legislative salaries and per diem

The state Senate was right to unanimously reject giving a 20% pay… Continue reading