On the Contrary

It has been fun listening to Republicans try to reinvent themselves this last week.  I listened to Sarah Palin, “the rock star of the Republican Party” repeat her campaign speeches and when pressed for new ideas, said basically, there were lots of them.  Kind of like Supreme Court cases that she would like to overturn, she couldn’t name any.  But she is only the tip of the iceberg.  I listened to Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, one of their purported new young rising stars, talk about how they needed to get back to a party of inclusiveness, and address the issues of younger people.  I would agree that’s what they need, but I don’t have any clue about how they are going to do it.  I have yet to hear anything like a good idea.  Here is an example from Charles Blow from an Op-ed piece in the New York Times on Saturday:

“To be modern, you have to go back. Return to fiscal conservatism and ease up on social conservatism. Obsess more about controlling spending and less about controlling other people’s bodies. Reach out to poor people in the cities as well as those in the sticks. Make space for minorities, and re-examine the position on immigration.”

How do you reach out when you have been demonizing them and you have no ideas about helping them except “controlling spending”?  Could it be to help them you might actually have to spend some money?  And that is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.  The Press has been listening to these pronouncements of Republicans, but never asking the question how.  The Republicans seem to think that the only thing wrong with their policies is that they got off track.  That if they could just go back to small government and frugal spending it would be Reaganville again.  The only Republican who isn’t preaching this bag of hot air is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who says he doesn’t care about ideology, just being pragmatic.  I believe the Govenator because that is what he is trying to do in California with ideologues on both sides of the isle blocking his every move.  But for most of the rest of his party, they really haven’t examined the elephant in the room, which is does basic conservative ideology have anything to offer us anymore?

Here is what I would like the Press to ask some of these born-again Republicans:

1. After years where the Republican Party has used divide and conquer, racial politics, and fear as a strategy and the party is basically a party of white people, how specifically are you going to attract those you have demonized in the past?
2. With this new approach to new ideas, how can you keep you social conservatives who feel that these issues are a litmus test for candidates?  Do you still want to?
3. How does “control spending” solve the problem that right now the economy will need major stimulation and what is your plan for stimulating that economy?  If it is more tax cuts for the rich or lower capital gains how is this going to help when that is what we have been doing for the last eight years?
4. How can smaller government be consistent with what is generally believed to be things government needs to do:

a.    Invest in Alternate Energy?
b.    Rebuild our infrastructure?
c.    Provide healthcare for all our citizens?
d.    Make higher education more available?

Now you know what they will say.  We need tax incentives and a more vibrant market place and then let the market place solve these problems.  Vibrant market place, by the way, is code for, no regulations and no government interference.  That is how we got where we are today.  So ask how the market place can solve any of these problems.  Marketplace solutions have not fared well in these arenas.  What conservatives have done in the past is do nothing and wait for the market place to move.  It hasn’t.  And in many cases such as energy efficiency, it has lead us in the wrong direction.

The sad thing that they haven’t figured out is the Democrats have taken what they had right and co-opted it.  For example, clearly their is a major role government has to play in getting us down the road to alternate energy, but they understand leveraging the free market to innovate.  For infrastructure rebuilding, it will be government funding with private sector executors.  Once again the strategic direction will have to be decided by the government.  Remember, we let the market place decide on cars and we got the Hummer and now they are going broke.  Healthcare will never be solved by the market place where private health insurance providers can skim the healthy or deny care to increase profits.  It is not a system set up to provide healthcare, but to provide profits for investors.  As for higher education being more available and affordable simply means we all have to contribute and invest in our young.  This is not a Republican value.  It would be “spreading the wealth”.

So if Republicans were clever they would push “smart government”, not less government meaning more effective and efficient government; smart regulations that protect us, but are not economy killers; smart spending where our investments are focused where they will give us the biggest return for our investment; and so on.  The trouble is, that is exactly what the Democrats are doing.  So if they want to really partake in the debate about what are the “smart” things, they need to jettison much of what they believe.  I haven’t heard that one yet.  In the meantime, John McCain is down in Georgia campaigning for Senator Saxby Chambliss, whose ad against Max Cleland, a triple amputee back in the 2002 campaign, “worse than disgraceful. It’s reprehensible.”  I guess for Republicans Party is thicker than values.  Maybe they can’t help themselves.