The Republican Party I grew up into—Dwight D. Eisenhower, William F. Buckley Jr., Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon (sigh), Ronald Reagan—stood for certain things. It did not always live up to its ideals. Au contraire, as we Republicans said in the pre-Dominique de Villepin era—often, it fell flat on its face. A self-proclaimed “conservative,” Nixon kept the Great Society entitlement beast fat and happy and brought in wage and price controls. Reagan funked Social Security reform in 1983 and raised (lesser) taxes three times. He vowed to balance the budget, and drove the deficit to historic highs by failing to rein in government spending. Someone called it “Voodoo economics.” You could Google it. There were foreign misadventures, terrible ones: Vietnam (the ’69-’75 chapters), Beirut, Iran-Contra, the Saddam Hussein tilt. But there were compensating triumphs: Eisenhower’s refusal to bail out France in Indochina in 1954, Nixon’s China opening, the Cold War victory.
Despite the failures, one had the sense that the party at least knew in its heart of hearts that these were failures, either of principle or execution. Today one has no sense, aside from a slight lowering of the swagger-mometer, that the president or the Republican Congress is in the least bit chastened by their debacles. [Emphasis mine -- RD.]
George Tenet’s WMD “slam-dunk,” Vice President Cheney’s “we will be greeted as liberators,” Don Rumsfeld’s avidity to promulgate a minimalist military doctrine, together with the tidy theories of a group who call themselves “neo-conservative” (not one of whom, to my knowledge, has ever worn a military uniform), have thus far: de-stabilized the Middle East; alienated the world community from the United States; empowered North Korea, Iran, and Syria; unleashed sectarian carnage in Iraq among tribes who have been cutting each others’ throats for over a thousand years; cost the lives of 2,600 Americans, and the limbs, eyes, organs, spinal cords of another 15,000—with no end in sight. But not to worry: Democracy is on the march in the Middle East. Just ask Hamas. And the neocons — bright people, all — are now clamoring, “On to Tehran!”
What have they done to my party? Where does one go to get it back? One place comes to mind: the back benches.
If you want to know where to find the Schadenfreude on Election Night, come sit by me. Or maybe by Richard Viguerie, also in the Washington Monthly symposium, saying:
If Big Government Republicans behave so irresponsibly and betray the people who elected them, while we blindly, slavishly continue backing them, we establish that there is no price to pay for violating conservative principles. If we give in, we are forgetting the lesson that mothers teach their daughters: Why buy a cow when the milk is free?
Oooh, snap!
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But, dammit, the Dems are still pushing their liberal agenda and I can't support that either.
How much damage can they do if they get an edge in the House? It's the Senate that confirms SCOTUS nominees, and Bush and the Senate GOP will be chastened by the anger of their base (remember, he did give us Alito after Meyer bowed out, which is an improvement if not perfection). As to the war, I think Bush is more likely to pull the trigger with Iran if the GOP loses than not because he will see his time as limited; in his mind, settling the Iran issue will be a necessity with a swiftly approaching deadline.>
Bravo for this article. I won't throw my vote away on a third party candidate.
I am not averse to casting my vote AGAINST something when there's nothing to cast a vote FOR.
In this case, I will go against my instinct and vote AGAINST lies and FOR a search for the truth. Democrats and liberals may be reprobate (not all, of course), but I will not let my party continue to lie cheat and steal with no repurcussions.>
This just in, Anonymous: all parties contain those who lie cheat and steal. Looking for a marginal edge in political virtue is a futile enterprise.>
Now that I am a moderate, I can't help but recall with embarrassment the catastrophizing that people on the Left did when Ronald Reagan was elected, and then when the Republicans got control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1994.
Mostly, these elections proved that the party and the people in power eventually overreach and are then booted out of office. (Tom Delay, for instance.) That is one of the strengths of our Democratic system.
However, liberals were right to catastrophize the election of George W. Bush. In a state of national emergency, we need someone trustworthy and competent in power.
I won't say that who is in power doesn't matter, because I think it does.
However, I do believe that our politics and civic life would be a lot better off if people on the Left and Right stopped demonizing the other side, and treating the prospect of the other side getting in power as a catastrophy. JMO.>
Series on Barry Goldwater's Legacy:
">http://www.rightlinx.com/?p=207>
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