Why it’s time for some soul searching within the GOP

by Kay B. Day

Photo of President Ronald Reagan, from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. Despite success with the 2008 elections, the DNC isn’t guaranteed future success. They are at present committing the sins of their predecessors—absolute power is a troublesome advantage. As I predicted, a Democratic Congress led by far lefties combined with an inexperienced leftie president, are engaging in record amounts of federal spending.

Despite a promise to go through the budget line by line, President Barack Obama has not done that, instead expanding the government. Despite a promise to reform healthcare, Democrats have failed miserably with the product known as HR 3200, the healthcare bill that will eventually, if passed, result in a single payer system with the government in charge of healthcare. If Waxman Markey (HR 2454) becomes law, Americans will pay more for everything because any product or process emitting carbon will be taxed.

And we must admit to ourselves the Dems are geniuses at tax-grabbing—they’ve explored a national sales tax (value-added tax), taxes on soft drinks, cigarettes and whatever else they can get their mitts on.

And by the way, our milk prices will probably rise since HR 2997 was passed—dairy price supports were raised by Dems. And for the final insulting stroke, a tax dodger heads up the committee writing our tax regulations. Another oversees the Treasury.

As if all this were not a divine gift for the GOP, a Democratic representative spent time praising Fidel Castro during her alleged healthcare townhall in California.

Tax dodgers in the cabinet and Congress and racially charged statements by Czars like the Green Guy (“Republicans are assholes”) as well as economic advisers like Robert Reich (“white male construction workers” shouldn’t apply for recovery projects) give any political strategist even with minimal intellectual capacity an arsenal of fodder for good old fashioned political battling. That’s perfectly fair, considering the disinformation war waged against the GOP.

Obama may express a desire for bi-partisanship but the Dems in Congress are incapable of bi-partisanship. And when hands go across the aisle, the GOP gets burned—‘No Child Left Behind’, the Medicare Drug Benefits bill, the immigration bill are all examples. The GOP is burned every time it wades into the Land of Entitlement.

As an example of blatant hypocrisy, consider a past article from the pro-Dem newspaper The Washington Post. In 2005, The Post wrote about the cost of the Medicare Drug Benefits bill, “The disclosure prompted new criticism by Democrats about the administration's long-term budget estimates. It also showed that Medicare, the national medical insurance program for seniors, may pose a far more serious budgetary problem in the coming decade than concerns about the solvency of Social Security.” Who complained the loudest? Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) who said, “If you're looking for a crisis, I would suggest you look at a crisis that was self-made in just last year, because the crisis exists in what's happened to Medicare by weighing it down... Those of us who told you it was going to cost twice as much were right." I’d love to ask “Rahmsie” how he plans to adjust that statement when considering costs for single payer healthcare and all the expansion he’s helped push.

You’d think the GOP would be all over this. Where, I wonder, are the creatives?

Yet there is no clear national GOP leader and there is no clear national GOP platform in the eyes of those who are not Party faithful. In Florida, there is a definite divide between grassroots and top leadership. Leaders quickly pushed Gov. Charlie Crist to the forefront, with endorsements after he declared his intention to run in the primary to fill retiring senator Mel Martinez’s seat. I’ve covered numerous Republican events over the past year. Those endorsements were not well received because Marco Rubio, former speaker of the Florida House who is a fiscal conservative, had also declared his intention to run for that seat. Dr. Marion Thorpe had also declared.

There have been any number of conservative pundits and former leaders criticizing the GOP—from Colin Powell to print syndicated columnists who rant about the Southern influence on the Party. At the moment the only group of people you can safely criticize, by the way, are Southerners. You can say anything you like even if it makes no sense whatsoever and you will get a pass. At every opportunity, Dems play the race card because it’s the most valuable card in the Party wallet. This will expire one day of course, when the entitlement class figures out life really can't get much better than this if the government has control of your money.

What the GOP lacks right now is a solid narrative. For many of us, Republicans represented smaller government, lower taxes and fiscal conservatism. But media presents the GOP’s social issues and completely misses the boat on the fact there is no consensus on many of them. I saw a comment that suggested moderate Republicans need to speak up. They already do, by the way. I’ve seen other comments and columns advising Libertarians and moderate Republicans to get out of the Party. They are moving that way, by the way.

The GOP touts the “big tent” approach to voters. Frankly, I’m not seeing that right now on our state and national level. What I am seeing is top-down management. The Party still wants your donations but you can suck eggs if you want to have a voice. I keep trying to tell people the protesters at townhalls aren’t just angry at the president. They’re angry at the government, a government that has officially placed many conservatives in the realm of “right wing terrorists” because of issues over gun rights, abortion and the size of the federal government.

Meanwhile, Dems are sending taxpayer money home whether home needs the bucks or not. Federal money funds airports few people use and institutes honoring Democratic senators like Paul Simon (more than $1 million a year earmark, perpetual, courtesy of then-Senator Obama). And down the road we will confront a titanic battle over taxes because in order to succeed with a leftist agenda, Congress will have to get the money somewhere. I predict an exodus of wealth because the truly rich have the ability to park their bucks wherever the benefits are.

I admit I am a small government proponent, a fiscal conservative. I believe a majority of the problems we confront at present are a direct result of social and economic engineering. Left wingers malign “big business,” the straw man that has been extremely useful to the Democrats whose cronyism with companies like GE, hedge funds, labor unions and communications has largely gone unreported. What has also gone unreported is the dismay many small businesses are experiencing as government intrudes on matters like healthcare, with penalties in place for employers whose healthcare policies aren’t deemed “acceptable” by bureaucrats who will be in charge if a bill like HR 3200 is passed. IRS will be the Dems’ enforcer and I guarantee you that will not be a pretty picture.

What’s missing from the two party debate are key questions. How big can government safely get? Do we want socialism in this country? Do we want government to further encroach our personal choices? Do we want to see our president every time we tune into a TV network? Do we want to buy into our current government’s ‘Robin Hood’ approach, whereby we gouge the rich for the benefit of the poor regardless of whether they are truly needy? Do we take a stand and forego federal money even though that may hurt our own district? Do we push for state sovereignty as a response to the heavy federal hand clamping down on the Republic? What’s the most important issue we tackle? How do we avoid getting mired down in social issues? How do we combat hypocrisy such as media ignoring the fact Obama’s views on marriage, stated during the debates, are traditional, and Obama as a senator sponsored or co-sponsored almost $1 billion in earmarks?

Republican leadership should do some serious soul searching. As political opportunity falls like manna from heaven, what tangibles, exactly, are we bringing to the table within that “big tent?”