Where are we going?
CQ Politics has a must read piece about how conservatism and the Republican Party is reexamining not just how it communicates with voters but also what it stands for:
Most troubling, said Smith, is that congressional Republicans, once known for their ability to generate compelling policy ideas, are now struggling to articulate conservative views. Even in areas where Bush held firm to conservative principles, such as environmental regulation, Smith said, liberals have successfully framed the issues in their favor: “Many conservatives believe the popular wisdom about how to address such issues is wrong, but they haven’t found a good way of articulating an alternative.”
I think that is dead on. We’re still struggling to find our voice on many of these issues, and on other issues we have completely squander our competitive advantage (particularly fiscal policy). As a result, we find ourselves slipping back into old ways.
Some prominent conservatives are pressing on in campaign mode, echoing the culture-war style appeals from the McCain campaign, even though such tactics proved largely ineffective in the general election. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, in opposing the House’s stimulus legislation, argued it “could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now” — the group, known as ACORN, does political organizing of poor people and was the focus of last fall’s GOP ire about potential voter-registration fraud. Both the American Conservative Union and FreedomWorks have since echoed Boehner’s line of attack. Similarly, the popular conservative newsletter GOPUSA, last week revived McCain’s campaign one-liner that Obama’s main motivation was to “spread the wealth around.”
All of that is true and very good for motivating our base, but do we ever stop to think about how this is being perceived by the whole of America? Yes, it is an outrage that Acorn is receiving federal money, but why? Is it because they are “liberal,” or is it because they are a political group taking our hard earned tax dollars to advocate for something that we don’t believe in, or is it because of the fact that they have employees that are curently under indictment? More importantly, at a time when the economy continues to slide at a breakneck place, does the great middle of America even care? Wouldn’t it be more compelling to make the case of why this just isn’t sound economics? That case is being made, but its being muddied by hundreds of dissonant voices on the right.
This is not to say I have the answers. What I can say, though, is that we have much, much more of this sort of debate to look forward to.
