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Can Republicans Govern?
What if? What if a new Republican interpretation of American history succeeded in breaking apart the false conflation of Democratic efforts to consolidate power with political virtue? First, Republicans might lose their shame about actually governing. The Republicans' badge of honor--their reluctance to govern, their hesitance to press an affirmative agenda of their own--might be overcome. Republicans might actually learn to use the levers of power, if only to reverse our national course. Second, Republicans would discover what they have lacked so long: a cornucopia of policy ideas that could shape a legislative and regulatory agenda for decades to come. It is not that Republicans haven't put forward good initiatives from time to time; what they've lacked is a long-term vision that produces a wide and coherent menu of policies. Though correct in principle, the mantra of "lower taxes and less regulation" is too narrow to amount to such a vision. An affirmative vision of ever-expanding citizen empowerment is one that can generate initiatives and policies that build upon each other, unlike today's almost random occasional departures from the unrelenting growth of the left-Hegelian administrative state. Such a policy agenda would address at least four broad areas: (1) Entitlements. Direct payments to Americans are bankrupting the country. Worse, they are creating massive and unhealthy dependence and ever-expanding state power. (2) Free speech. Freedom of speech is vital to a free people, but is everywhere under assault by the left. It belongs at the center of a new agenda. (3) (Shrink the cost of) The federal government. The federal government, with its 2.8 million civilian employees, has become a self-perpetuating machine, insulated from the problems of ordinary Americans by ever-greater disparities in job security, pay, and benefits. The average government salary is north of $70,000, and a fifth of all federal employees make more than $100,000, in a country where the per capita income is just over $40,000. (4) American exceptionalism. Let's aim to be respected abroad, not loved. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-01-31 |
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