The events of the last 17 months need no rehashing here. What is noteworthy is the tremendous backlash in response to the Left’s machinations. America is now focused. They want an end to intrusive, bloated, nanny government, and an end to an activist judiciary. They want an America that proudly faces the world and says “We have been and remain the beacon of freedom and goodness for all mankind. We will stand against what is evil, and we apologize to nobody.”

Conservatives aren’t kidding around now. Marco Rubio chased Crist over to the other side, just like Toomey has done to Specter. New Jersey (New Jersey???) elected Chris Christie, and he’s taken a willow switch and taken it to the union and big government grizzlies. In the Republican primaries, we could name a hundred like them. In Michigan-1, that man is Dan Benishek, the down-to-earth surgeon running against the establishment, whose words have appeared here several times.

America is now looking for real conservatives to take America back from the Left. It’s finally cool to be a conservative candidate. We get some. But along with them, we get the fakers.

Which brings us to Republican candidate for MI-1 Jason Allen.

I’ve spoken of him before (remember, I hate unions, so he naturally got my attention). He’s currently a State Senator, about to be term-limited out of office. Read that link and you’ll see a man who is the primary sponsor of a bill that will screw independent home medical service providers, taking money out of their pockets and putting it directly into the coffers SEIU, from whom he’s received campaign contributions.

It’s state-sanctioned theft. Worse, it gives still more power to unions.

But the worst insult is that he claims to be conservative. On his web site (which I will not link) it’s in there. And when he announced his candidacy (after moving into the district in order to run for the House seat), he said:

I am running for Congress to represent the people of northern Michigan and stop the Washington spending craze. I am deeply concerned about the future of our country. We have runaway government spending, a government takeover of health care that we cannot afford, illegals and terrorists who get better treatment by our government than our citizens and a job crisis in northern Michigan that is more severe than anywhere else in the nation.

I was raised in the shadow of the mighty Mackinac Bridge. Northern Michigan is my home. Conservative values, hard work and respect for our neighbors is our way of life. I am a Republican, a conservative, a small businessman, a state senator, a sportsman, a veteran and a family man. It’s time we put the real people of northern Michigan first and say no more Washington D.C. politics and spending sprees. [emphasis mine]

Yes. The chief sponsor of SB731 called himself a conservative.

At the end of the day, any horse’s patooty can be a union fetch-boy. You can even be a Republican and be a union hack. RINO is not nationally popular, but in blue strongholds people will tolerate a union-loving Republican. But you CANNOT call yourself a conservative and break bread with unions.

Allen knows it too. Last week, after consistent pressure from MI-1 front-runner Dan Benishek, Allen reversed course (somewhat), engineering the removal of the offending parts of SB731. Jen Kuznicki of RightMichigan reports:

The Senior Citizens and Veteran Affairs Committee approved a change in language to the bill made by Allen this past Thursday to make sure that the initial bill would not unionize home care workers. Even though Allen defended the bill numerous times, his office issued a press release titled, “Bill provides home help workers safeguards.“ It describes his insertion of language into the bill he sponsored and defended to make sure forced unionization would not happen. So, while this language insertion corrects his bill, it amplifies the fact that he is not a principled conservative.

Yeah, OK, Jason. I guess it’s good that you righted your own wrong. Does anybody really believe you’d have done that if you weren’t running for the US House, with a conservative primary opponent who’s killing you? Do you think it’ll fool the Yoopers into believing you’re a real conservative?

I don’t think so.