By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com
We are living through a time which has brought tragedy to both political parties. In this piece I want to focus on the one which has all but consumed the Republican Party. After a brief discussion of the basics of what I see as the essential underpinnings of the Party, I will outline the source of this crisis, discuss the ways out of it and give you my opinion about why it is critical that the Party be reclaimed and reinvigorated.
Basic Conservatism
There are a number of characteristics of conservatism in the United States and, by abandoning them the Republican Party has come to look like something out of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. The first among many is fiscal conservatism. (An indication of how far the party has come from this central idea is the number of people – including many so-called conservatives – who routinely pronounce the word as ‘physical’.) Conservatives have historically stood for reining in government spending – careful husbanding of public resources – limited access to public credit and a fiscal policy which focused on investment in infrastructure and education.
A second marker on the conservative landscape is limited government. Historically conservatives were the heirs of Henry David Thoreau who, in Civil Disobedience, wrote “The government is best which governs least”. The idea – made popular and potent by Ronald Reagan – was that government was most often the problem and needed to get out of the way of the people – that government should not intrude into their lives or interfere with their unalienable rights.
A third among many was the idea that the states are sovereign and that it was they that were the originators of the federal government – the states, being closer to the people, were better suited to govern when it was necessary to do so. This meant a distributed sovereignty and an avoidance of concentrating power in Washington and in the hands of the federal executive.
A fourth – and very significant – marker was the idea that the constitution and the other founding documents were to be read and applied as they were written. Collateral to this idea is the assertion that the rights of government arise from the consent of the governed – that they alone have the right to grant and/or take those rights away from their government – that the people rule the government rather than the other way around.
Fifth was the idea that the United States of America should be a good and reliable partner in international affairs. It should avoid foreign entanglements and adventures and provide guidance and support for the orderly development of democracy in the world. The idea that the United States would engage in something akin to ‘democratic imperialism’ – democracy at the point of a gun – was always an anathema to conservatives.
There are many more of these ‘markers’ – but, for now, I want to focus on the five I’ve mentioned. Around the turn of the century the conservative movement fell into a trap – a massive diversion from its core principals that threatens to destroy the movement and dishonor the ideals upon which it is founded.
The Trap
In the struggle to regain power after the Clinton years the Republican Party fell victim to what can only be called an act of piracy. This hijacking of the party was accomplished by a combination of political and business interests and managed through a coalition of conservative democrats, lobbyists, special interest groups, the religious right, ideologically rigid and moneyed interests. For the most part these groups had only one thing in common – they were dedicated to dismantling Mr. Madison’s structure and claiming control in the name of a limited cabal. Their first move was to marginalize the conservatives in the Party. Having pushed them aside, the cabal then looked around to find a candidate who suited their purpose. An observation sometimes attributed to Ronald Reagan seemed to point the way. “A moment I’ve been dreading. George brought his ne’er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.” The neo-republicans had found their man!
The distinctly non-conservative ideology of the hijackers was the direct cause of the decline of the value of the conservative brand over the last decade. These pirates believed in the expansion of the executive authority. They were convinced that Richard Nixon had the right idea when he attempted to build an imperial presidency. They believed that individual rights should be sacrificed and that the rights of special interests – their constituency – should be increased. Tax cuts for the rich and the removal of habeas corpus and the assault on the fourth amendment to the constitution are two examples of this intention. They were dedicated to the idea that the state was the source of sovereignty and that individual citizens were only very small cogs in the wheels. They also came into office determined to bust the Clinton balanced budget and open the federal coffers to their friends and supporters. These neo-conservatives went about constructing a governing elite which they hoped would rule the United States for a hundred years – eliminating all ideas of a meritocracy and substituting the loyalty oath and political contributions as the path to advancement.
The result of this madness has become clear to any reasonable political observer. The country is deeply in debt, isolated internationally – the economy is facing a major challenge and problems that might have been solved over the last decades are now becoming critical to our very survival. We are more dependant on foreign oil – and fossil fuel in general – our foreign policy is more controlled by foreign interests particularly those who own massive amounts of our IOUs) than at any time since the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. Our citizenry is ill equipt for the challenges which we face – jobs have been shipped overseas – we are shipping massive amounts of capital to oil producing nations and countries like China – energy policies have failed and, in the case of ethanol, driven up the price of food. The list goes on and on.
This is a critical time for conservatives in the United States. If they don’t reclaim their party and navigate out of the trap that the neo-conservatives have put us in, it is entirely likely that, over the next four to eight years, the Republican Party will be relegated to the scrap heap of history. And that would be a tragedy beyond simply losing the Party – the very structure and functioning of the US government depends on the success of their efforts.
The Way Out of the Trap
As a first step, I suggest that the conservatives need to take a page from Bill Clinton’s playbook. The Democrats established then consolidated the new leadership in their party through the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). It began with regular meetings in places like Hilton Head – but quickly grew into a venue for serious discussions about important issues facing the party and the country. If a group of senior conservatives were to start such an organization, the power base necessary to take back control of the Party could be built.
Next, the conservatives need to re-brand the Party – bring back the founding principles of the movement and put them center stage – not just in rhetoric but in effect. The time of saying one thing and doing another has to come to an end. The last eight years has demonstrated the insanity of that approach. The desolation that has become the Republican Party ought to be enough to prove that a return to core values is essential to the survival of the movement.
The Party needs to clean its house – to drive out the hijackers and pirates. Without this decisive and highly public cleansing, the public will always suspect that the thugs are still really in control behind the scenes. It is an unavoidable fact that the conservatives have much more to gain by the impeachment of the current president than the Democrats. The same is true about the prosecution of the various neo-conservatives who have participated in the assault on the constitution, pillaging of the public coffers and hijacking of the Republican Party. In fact, the Democrats would rather have these people around for a long time – they and the memory of what they did is good fodder for Democratic candidates. It is up to conservatives to act.
Finally, the Party needs to develop a new leadership – people who are truly dedicated to the underlying principals of the conservative movement and independent of the cabal which has so desecrated the Party’s reputation. Without these new leaders, the old vandals will have more control over the Party than the real conservatives. To quote Newt Gingrich, “real change requires real change.”
Why It’s Important
For conservatives, these arguments might seem sufficient – but there is another reason why they must take back their party and reform it along conservative lines. Since the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, this country has operated with two political parties. In those days it was the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Today it is the Republicans and the Democrats. The system requires that both parties be healthy and potent. This assures the battle over ideas which are so central to the enlightened management of Mr. Madison’s government. In short, we need two healthy parties which represent differing perspectives on the best way to govern the country. Without this balance, the country suffers and the ship of state wanders off course. The ascendency of either party to a level of power which marginalizes the other is inherently dangerous for the Republic and harmful of its interests.
Dr. Smith is a political and social theorist who live in
Georgetown, Washington, DC
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