Editorial

A Return to Values

The GOP suffered a second consecutive election setback in 2008, and some would suggest that major policy changes are needed to position the party for ballot box victories.  The tea-leaf readers are quick to suggest that the election of Barack Obama and successive gains in the House and Senate are evidence that a philosophical change has occurred in America and that the Democrats are aligned for a long term dominance of the nation’s political center stage.  The traditional center-right politics in America, they profess, have taken a tectonic shift to the left.  To use an old country cliché, “That dog won’t hunt!”

Republican woes are not because their principles are wrong; it’s because they strayed from the principles that made the party great.  Growing government, out of control spending, failure to secure the borders, ethical scandals, pork on top of pork, etc. etc. etc. gave the voters every reason to sour on the GOP and give the other guys a chance.  Obama never had to define what “change” meant; he just had to promise it.  Combined with an economic tail spin six weeks before the election, frankly it’s a wonder the results weren’t even more devastating. 

Here’s the good news: real hope is in our hands because our principles work and theirs don’t. 

Time will tell what Obama, Pelosi, and Reid actually do.  They’ve promised to govern from the center, which is remarkable given that Obama accumulated the Senate’s most liberal voting record, and San Francisco Nancy Pelosi sets the agenda on the Hill.  Today’s liberals – pardon me, “progressives” – simply deny that there is a left side to the political spectrum, so where they line up must by definition be the new center.

If more government were the cure for all that ails us, surely we’d be approaching political nirvana by now.  After the New Deal, the Great Society, and the big government binge that both parties have had a hand in for 70 years, you’d think Washington would have smothered any vestige of woe and evil with the continual flood of our tax dollars and debt.  Europe has tried big government socialism and failed.  Led by France and Germany, they are attempting to regain some discipline while America seems to be trying to out-Europe the Europeans. 

Limited government, the rule of law, restrained spending, fiscal discipline, low taxes, maximum individual freedom, restrained regulation, a strong national defense, and peace through strength not only make sense – it’s good government.  Freedom is still the dream alive in every soul, and you don’t make some people more free by taking freedom away from someone else.    Our principles work, theirs don’t – and the voters still understand that.

Yes, voters were a little schizophrenic again in electing politicians that championed policies that didn’t square with their values.  That seems par for the course in most elections, but particularly with the self-inflicted dissatisfaction for the GOP.  In Colorado, voters strongly rejected tax increasing ballot initiatives reaffirming their desire to keep a tight rein on government, while overwhelmingly favoring Obama and electing more Democrats to Congress who will support higher taxes, more regulation, and more spending.

The Democrats’ leaders are not only inclined to support more government at every opportunity, the constituency that brought them to power will demand it.  The labor unions, trial lawyers, environmental extremists, anti-capitalists, and the blame-America-first crowd will be demanding paybacks for bringing these people to power.  The Democrats will over reach, and Americans will be repulsed.  It will be up to the GOP to make the case to replace them starting in 2010.

To return to political dominance, the GOP must return to the values that made the party and America great. The current economic crisis provides a clear example.  Washington is in a frenzy to spend our way out of it.  Too many – including some Republicans – refuse to admit that it was too much government that helped create the mess, and yet to cure it they are prescribing more government.  And, we and our grandchildren will get the bill. 

Worse, a whole new precedence has been established that anywhere else would be called “nationalizing” private industry.  In Washington it’s called “stabilizing the markets” or an “economic stimulus.”  They’ve taken over failed financial institutions, taken ownership interests in banks, and are on the verge of doing the same with the auto industry.  You can bet the airline companies are forming a line outside the U.S. Treasury to be next in line.  

Free markets work, but only if they are allowed to be free, and that includes the freedom to fail.  Risk is an inherent part of our system which built the greatest economic engine ever known to man.  The Soviets tried to remove that risk – as well as the potential for reward – and failed.  Why would we start the march down that same path?

The GOP will return to dominance when it finds its soul and its voice again.  A daunting agenda of work awaits resolution: economic turbulence, the threat from radical Islam, a balanced energy policy, educational and health care shortcomings, illegal immigration, and much more. Republican principles are the right principles to guide America through these times, and the future of our children and this great nation hang in the balance.  We would do well to refer to the words of Thomas Jefferson from his first inaugural address nearly 208 years ago:

“What more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

Such are the values that made the Republican Party great and sustained it.  They are values that work.  When we return to those values and live by them, America will again trust us to be the caretaker of “the sum of good government.”