May 6, 2009 12:15 PM
We have met the enemy and he is us.
--Pogo (Walt Kelly)
Senator Arlen Specter’s recent defection from the Republicans has intensified the already raucous call for change within the Party. Some say the Party must become more centrist; others claim it must become more conservative. There are voices of joy at the elimination of the moderate “RINOs” and others bemoaning the ascendancy of right wing extremists. There is even a “listening tour” with the Party’s handpicked elite. But, regardless of the message, the overarching goal of the messengers is the same; they will say whatever it takes to keep the same folks who drove the car into the ditch behind the wheel.
Unfortunately, the labels and platitudes have confused what should be a simple charge. Elected Republicans should govern by the principles they profess in campaign rallies and advertisements. Those principles were once the difference between the parties. The Democratic Party has always been an amalgam of special interests and constituencies with specific needs and wants cobbled together with government programs and spending. The Republican Party, at its best, is a party of broad ideas and principles. For example, those who tend to vote Republican believe in limiting the size and scope of government and respect the guarantees of individual freedom and liberty of our Constitution; they respect life and its diversity; and they understand that free market capitalism, the glue that holds the Republican party, and our Nation, together, is both the most efficient and most moral economic system.
Elected Republicans, particularly in Congress, have expanded government; ignored the Constitution; bailed out failed big businesses with taxes collected from successful small businesses; and spent, and spent, and spent. The Republican Congressional network of wasteful earmarks, corporate welfare and politically motivated subsidies simply recast the Democratic model of purchasing votes (ethanol anyone?). Now, Republican leaders express surprise that in a fiscal arms race to decide which party can spend the most, the Democrats have won.
Of course, identifying past problems is easy. Change will be difficult. Under the leadership of former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and his lieutenants, the K Street project merged an army of interest groups and lobbyists with Congressional Republicans. While the merged entity has been more involved in the business of politics than with governing, losing the confidence of the American people, the political power of this monstrosity is daunting. In Missouri, the Republican “establishment,” a cabal of officials, lobbyists, consultants and advisers, has since 2000 prevented the nomination of any Republican for Governor or U.S. Senate who was not a member of Congress, a former member, or the son of a member.
If change is possible, it will come from grassroots Republicans who no longer support candidates simply because they are the lesser of two evils; and who expect solutions as well as obstruction. It will probably be possible only when main street America insists on radical new ethical rules that divest Congress from K Street and the DC interest groups who have petrified the GOP. Republicans can only govern creatively and effectively when the deeds and actions of their candidates match their words. Otherwise the party of Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln will continue to field candidates whose only qualification is that they survived the wreck that they caused.
David Steelman is a lawyer living in Rolla, Missouri
[Read Jay Barnes' response to Mr. Steelman here.]
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Republicans can only govern creatively and effectively when the deeds and actions of their candidates match their words.
