By Mr. Curmudgeon
The New York Times is understandably worried. In a rare show of sanity, Republicans recognize it is not in their political self interest to help the Democratic Party transform American into a Latin American style banana republic. “Republicans have dug in almost unanimously this year against legislation that at least some should have been able to vote for…” A sleepy America has awakened, Gulliver like, and found Democratic Lilliputians have tied them to the earth to better pick their pockets, and more importantly, rob them of their freedoms.
“Only solid majorities in the House and Senate have allowed Democrats to advance their chief initiatives this year,” said the Times. “But it has been a mighty struggle, and the size of the majorities, if not the majorities themselves, is in jeopardy in next year’s elections.” President Obama’s love of legislative deadlines is his acknowledgment that with just over a year in office, “hope and change” is nearing the end of its shelf life.
Meanwhile, over at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), co-founded by squishy Republicans Bob Dole and Howard Baker, they hope to do for the Republican Party what a speeding asteroid did for the dinosaurs. “While political differences and debate are part of what makes this country a strong democracy, when partisanship trumps civil discourse it can poison the policies and laws that government is supposed to enact.” In other words, there is no principle so cherished that it can’t be negotiated away. The price of compromise comes with a heavy price for Democrats. Health care votes cost the taxpayer billions of dollars in bribes. For squishy Republicans, on the other hand, the price is a conciliatory pat on the head.
The BPC believes that “after reaching shared solutions through principled compromise, we work to implement these policies through the political system. The BPC is currently focused on the following issues: health care, energy and climate change, national security, homeland security, transportation and science…”
And to think, the internal combustion engine was invented and improved upon, world wars were won and advances were some how made in the sciences – all without the help of the BPC.
Cooperation between free individuals is the hallmark of a civil society. But politics is not a swap meet where all is for sale – it’s just a matter of negotiating the final price. It is the arena of ideas. Unfortunately, many Republicans see politics as a Zen exorcise, where an empty head leads one down the road to enlightenment.
For the Democrats, ideas are simple - power and (our) money. Other than longing to compromise with power mad kleptomaniacs, what do Republican moderates stand for? The answer, of course, is simple…nothing. Yet they hold their intellectual and ideological blank slate to the world like a badge of honor.
Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, seeing an electoral disaster looming just over the horizon, hopes that if Republicans become the majority party in Congress, its moderates will stop saying no to big, intrusive, expensive and destructive government. “Very frankly, my friends, we have to stop that. We have to stop it for whoever is in charge, because Americans expect better of us.” Yes, Rep. Hoyer, they do expect better. That is why they are poised to throw many of your members into the street come election day. The question is whether a Republican majority can conjure ideas that will restore Constitutional restraint on a government grown too dangerous and too large through too much compromise.
0 comments on "Shaking off Compromise"