United Liberty

In last week’s article titled “Problems of the Republican Party”, I discussed some key policy mistakes the modern day Republican Party has made over the last quarter of a century. The problems are deep and quite fundamental, as I mentioned before, but with some significant reform and a bit of policial realignment it is possible for the Republican Party to regain the prestige it once had. For the voices within the party that stand for reason and liberty, this battle will be very slow and may never be won, but finding and implementing solutions to fix the myriad of problems the party faces is a worthy cause.

What are the Solutions?

For the Republican Party to rebuild its brand it must first address the root causes of its problems. Issues such as those mentioned in “Problems of the Republican Party” are of particular importance, but they are not even close to being comprehensive. If Republican candidates intend on actually winning contested races they must be able to contrast themselves and their policy against both their opponent and the legacy of their party.

Issues of lack of respect for the rule of law and individual liberty are perhaps the most difficult problems to solve, maybe even more so than excessive spending, because it is entrenched deeper in the belief system about the role of government than any other issue. The idea that we need a near dictator to protect us from evil is a cancer that must be removed. Christians in particular must be convinced that giving government permanent emergency powers to fight “them” is dangerous because it will eventually be used by the state against believers (read: Revelation). The same can be said about powers used to fight illegal immigration.

Broadly speaking, the issue of runaway spending is perhaps the second hardest problem to solve mainly because it has become a culture as opposed to a strategic policy. Many Republicans truly do intend to go to Washington to “stop the spending” but once they begin to face the realities of politics and the need to stay in office (special interest contributions & elderly votes) combined with the inability for even a sizable number of elected officials to slow down the well oiled spending machine, they become either a weak disillusioned member of Congress or they completely sacrifice their principles and become part of the very problem they originally sought to remedy. For this problem there are no quick fixes or easier answers. While any lasting significant change will come from either changing the minds of those elected or changing who actually is elected to serve, there are some key measures fiscal conservatives should attempt to implement.

First is removing all off budget spending. If it can’t be budgeted it can’t be spent. The Iraq War is still technically considered “emergency spending”, when it is nothing of the sort. Second is supporting (and actually following through with) paygo policy. While under paygo no taxes can be cut if proportional reductions in spending are not made, there is a great incentive to keep from growing spending at rates higher than revenue growth since no additional spending can be made without offseting tax hikes. While measures such as these will not attack the long term fundamental problems, they should help marginally slow the growth of government. Even if a combination of procedural measures together slow the growth of government by 1% per year then the benefits begin to add up over the course of an Administration. We saw this from Republicans from 1995 to 1998 and it was a major factor in why the general account had surpluses in the latter stages of the Clinton Administration.

As I mentioned last week “the third major blunder of the Republican Party over the last 8 years is its willingness to support a radical non-American foreign policy of American aggression and intervention oversees.” The solutions for helping cure the Republican Party’s foreign policy problems are much simpler. If our nation’s homeland is not under significant threat, then we should take a non-aggressive, fairly hands off approach to most foreign matters. The parts of the defense budget dealing with European, Asian, and Middle-Eastern foreign affairs can and should be slashed to inflation adjusted pre-WWII levels. Republicans, who have a long history of supporting a strong military, have the political credibility needed to make the necessary cuts. We need to rid the party of its foreign policy idealism, while at the same time preventing it from embracing the antiquated policy of realism.

Especially since the turn of the century the Republican Party has had the reputation of standing up for corporate interests, even if it means doing so at the expense of average working Americans. If anything the public’s perception of this problem has been overly mild. There are many political disadvantages to shunning corporatism such as less campaign contributions and less political power, but these disadvantages are mainly short-term, and can be replaced by grassroots support over the longer term. It will never be easier than now to make these necessary changes because there is already a massive shift in corporate special interest support away from the Republicans and towards the Democrats. The Republican Party needs to become and market itself as the party of small business, introducing proposals such as a low flat income tax option for businesses earning less than a million dollars per year.

Already the Republican Party has begun to battle itself over the role of social conservatism within the party. The Party surely does not want to lose the pro-life, pro-marriage activists who provide significant monetary and grassroots support for Republican candidates, but at the same time the nation is becoming increasing open on a wide range of social issues. Those pre-war voters who are percieved as being less socially liberal are begining to lose their influence do to sheer age. The baby-boomer generations that were at the forefront of “social progress” in 60s and 70s are now assuming their inevitable place of “most coveted voting demographic”. Because of basic demographic, culture, and ideological trends the Republican Party is going to have to become more libertarian on social issues if it intends on regaining the median voter. The simplist way to accomplish this while not completely alienating an important wing of the party is to put significantly more emphasis on leaving social issues up to the individual states. Republicans have marketed (or at least done nothing to counter the false assertion of) the overturning Roe vs Wade as the ending of abortion rights in America, when such is not the case; it would simply leave it up to individual states to decide their abortion policy. If Republicans begin to say that social policies that Nebraska wants to enact need not have to be implemented in New York (and visa versa), it will go a long ways towards building a coaltion that more effectively represents the interests of a broader range of voters.

Conclusion

Again I will state that what I outlined is just a small sampling of problems and solutions of and for the Republican Party. The Republicans are posed for a quick comeback if they shun the neoconservatives, corporatism, and contain those who want to use the federal government as a tool to entact their perferred social policies. Remember the Democrats did not win because of a large ideological shift away from individualism and towards liberal collectivism (in fact, the Democrats only netted 10 state senate seats in the entire nation this year) but rather because the Republican Party lost its way. Get back on a steady path founded in the rule of law, invididual liberty, fiscal prudence, and sanity in foreign relations and Americans will embrace Republican candidates once again.