He’s Kidding, Right???
Former Rep. Tom Davis, (R-VA), has written an op-ed charting the GOP’s pathway back to the majority. In other words, the man who helped bring about the GOP’s demise is now counselling us on how to regain what he helped lose. Here’s one of his recommendations:
Second, remind ourselves the first principle of conservatism is not tax cuts or free trade or even smaller government. It is prudence, and prudence should be our guide. Prudence dictates we take seriously the concerns of those who elect us and tailor our policy proposals to counter the government-mandate-heavy ideas bound to emerge from the other side.
The first principle of conservatism is liberty. That can’t be achieved with a government that isn’t limited. A government that is too big limits liberty. It’s that simple.
I don’t recall Rep. Davis complaining about the amount of earmarks in the Transportation Bill. I don’t recall Rep. Davis voting against oversized budget bills.
Here’s something else that Rep. Davis said that’s worth examining:
Prudence dictates we build on the No Child Left Behind Act and get serious about education reform. Americans demand top-notch schools, and it is our constitutional duty to ensure this happens. Yes, constitutional. We’ve reached an age where we can’t, in practice, provide for the common defense or compete economically without an educated citizenry. We should maximize local control…so long as local control is working. We need to measure, and we need to see that failure is addressed. Remember, it’s about the students, not the institutions.
This is dangerous thinking. The United States Constitution doesn’t anticipate education being a federal responsibility. In fact, the Tenth Amendment implies that it shouldn’t a federal responsibility because it isn’t among the enumerated responsibilities listed in the US Constitution. That’s the concept of federalism. I’d be surprised if Rep. Davis is vaguely familiar with that concept.
Without even realizing it, Rep. Davis displays a centralized government mindset. For example, Minnesota’s constitution mandates that state government provide for education funding. While control isn’t as distant as the federal government, it isn’t local, either. It’s best described as in between control. It’s just distant enough to take many education issues away from local school boards.
The fact that a state’s constitution talks about its responsibilities necessarily means that the federal government wasn’t assigned responsibility for it.
Here’s another thing that Rep. Davis said that’s worth examining:
With the heavy lifting out of the way, we indulged in more trivial pursuits, and this led to trouble. We talked to ourselves and not to voters. We became more concerned with stem cell policy than economic policy, and with prayer in schools rather than balance in our public budgets and priorities. Not so long ago, it was easy to paint the Democrats as the party of extremists. Now, they say we’re extremists, and voters agree.
What really happened wasn’t that we only talked with other Republicans or that we indulged various interest groups. What really happened was that Republicans serving in Washington didn’t listen to people living outside Washington. Had they listened, they wouldn’t have gotten on the wrong side of the immigration issue. If they’d listened, they wouldn’t have gotten on the wrong side of the bailout issue.
To be clear, I’m talking about the bailout of the auto industry.
The truth is that the GOP started taking the approach that it knew what was best. That led legislators in key positions of power to ignore We The People. It’s one thing to take a constituent’s solutions with a grain of salt. It’s another to ignore things that We The People have identified as problems or worries.
Finally, the thing that’s hurt the GOP the most is that they haven’t talked about problems in terms that make things personal. For instance, DC-based Republicans didn’t talk about health care reform as part of making small businesses profitable. DC-based Republicans didn’t explain that the PATRIOT Act was passed so that the intelligence community could share information it gathered with law enforcement.
I’ll bet that it wasn’t explained, outside the Right Blogosphere at least, that the intelligence community couldn’t share information it gathered with law enforcement because of something now nicknamed the Gorelick Wall.
We stopped making the most compelling arguments for our policies. We got complacent. Once that started, we thought we’d forever be the majority party.
Now it’s time to rebuild. Rep. Davis is welcome to help in the rebuilding. It’s just that he doesn’t have credibility on the issue of party building.
Technorati Tags: Tom Davis, Tenth Amendment, States Rights, Federalism, Constitution, Conservatism, Local Control, Pork, Beltway
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
January 15th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
You know, there comes a time when a sinking sinking ship reaches what is called its righting moment, the point at which its bouyancy and stability are just at the point of balance where the ship’s ability to right itself is equal to the point at which it will founder.
As conservatives begin to abandon this ship it may indeed right itself as political pablum, or hopefully begin to slip beneath the waves of its present leaderships arrogance and elitism.
Perhaps then the conservative movement will at long last cut itself loose from the rotten, worm infested wreckage of the former GOP and build a true conservative party from the keel up.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
WELL SAID, USN ret.!!