The Capra Presidential Candidate of 2012: Thaddeus McCotter

In the 1939 film from director Frank Capra, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” businessmen and politicians are depicted as scheming to push through legislation for the construction of an unneeded dam. Jimmy Stewart’s character Jefferson Smith, who is the equivalent of a local Boy Scout leader, serendipitously gets appointed a U.S. senator for the state where the dam is planned.

As Capra’s good natured everyman, Mr. Smith is subsequently chewed up and all but spit out by the Washington machine. Through his naïve persistence, Smith at the last moment successfully exposes the scheme, winning the day.

Today, when thinking about who we want to represent us in Washington, my thoughts go to the fictional Mr. Smith. There is something about Smith, just like George Bailey in Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Longfellow Deeds in Capra’s “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” something exceptionally good yet seemingly ordinary about the leading men in these films that sets them apart from their peers.

The problem is finding this exceptionally good yet seemingly ordinary candidate, let’s call him or her the Capra candidate. The closest I’ve come is Representative Thaddeus McCotter. Who?

Not a big name by a long shot—a Capra candidate couldn’t be—McCotter is currently considering throwing his hat into the race for the Republican nomination. I think he should.

Like the classic Capra hero, Rep. McCotter is a hometown kind of guy who at times seems decidedly ordinary. The Detroit, Mich. suburb he represents, Livonia, is where he was born and raised and he only ventured about 30 minutes away to attend university. Like Mr. Smith who plays the mouth harp and Mr. Deeds who plays the tuba, Mr. McCotter skillfully plays the guitar.

As for exceptionally good, McCotter fits the bill. McCotter has taken some exceptionally brave positions. While other Republicans talk about being fiscally conservative, he actually voted against the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry in 2008.

Speaking on Fox News, McCotter said: “Wall Street-Washington crony capitalists have put a $700 billion bag of dung on taxpayers doorsteps, rung the bell, and asked you to thank them when you answer it.”

The prevailing logic for Republicans voting for the bailout was that the economy would have been in shambles without it.

But, McCotter retorted: “The fundamental premise is flawed, for government to say that they know better how to invest your money in a market that no one else would spend their own money on is fatally flawed!”

Whether or not the bailout was necessary in the short term is debatable, but McCotter’s words have the ring of self-evident truth. He rightly suggests that we are putting off our country’s growing, long term fiscal problems.

Also, as I’ve pointed out before, Republicans’ presidential contenders have shown no real position on the Chinese communist regime. China is the largest country in the world, the number two and rising economy, and the country with the largest military. It can’t be ignored!

McCotter has taken a refreshingly brave and active approach to China. When then Republican President Bush was planning to visit Beijing Olympics in 2008, McCotter signed a bill asking that the United States boycott the Beijing Olympics "until that tyrannical communist regime begins to recognize and respect the God-given rights of their own citizens,” said McCotter.

McCotter continued: “If the U.S. persists and attends, despite the inhuman actions of that regime, then we will have betrayed our responsibility as free and sovereign citizens, as equal children of God, to stand with our brothers and sisters in their pursuit of justice and freedom.”

Wait, am I reading the words from a Frank Capra movie or a Thaddeus McCotter speech? Hopefully, I’m reading the words of our next president.