Stephen Green proposes a new strategy for Republicans and opponents of the President’s economic policies:
[T]here are things we can do. They might not be smart, but they’re sure as hell right.
When the president calls for tax hikes, we should not play the old lap dog, me-too Republicans and put on our green eyeshades, trying to compromise on slightly smaller tax increases. We need to push for cuts, at least as deep as the ones President Bush pushed through during his first term.
It’s time to walk the walk on earmarks and hold the president’s feet to the fire on his campaign promises. Republicans, when in power, proved just as corrupt on this issue as the Democrats ever were, so we have some serious repenting to do. Now is the time to start — and you can help by lending support to Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, and anyone else willing to pick up the ball and run with it.
Most importantly, we need to push for a sunset provision to all this so-called “stimulus spending.” Here’s a measure so simple and commonsensical, we should have no problem explaining and selling it to the American people. As political junkies, we know the stimulus was really Porkzilla, with most of the “emergency” spending of this monster back-loaded into 2011 or beyond. The Democrats can be cornered on this one — demand that any back-end spending provision expire as soon as the economy returns to positive growth. The American people want their economy to recover, but polls show they remain wary of Porkzilla. Give them an out and they might just force the Democrats to take it.
If not? Then at least we’ll have offered them “a choice, not an echo.”
Would it be a minority position, possibly for a long time ?
Probably, but, you know, I’m a libertarian I’m used to holding political opinions that most Americans don’t agree with and people thinking I’m a little nuts when I say that drugs should be legalized or that the government should get out of the marriage business. Sometimes, it’s better to be right and ostracized then it is to go along with the status quo just so you can be popular.
As Steve notes, though, it could be a long time in the wilderness:
At CPAC in Washington last week, I got to spend a few minutes with PJTV’s Bill Whittle and novelist Andrew Klavan, picking the brains of Michael Barone. Barone reminded us that Americans are a “magnanimous people” who want “firsts to succeed.” As our first Catholic president, Jack Kennedy’s poll numbers rarely dipped below 70%, even after bad calls like the Bay of Pigs or scarily close calls like the Cuban Missile Crisis. “His numbers actually went up a bit,” Barone said. He thinks something similar might be true of Obama as our first African-American president. People will, quite simply, want him to be a success — even if they don’t necessarily agree with what it is he’s trying to accomplish.
I think that’s probably true, especially when you see poll results that Obama is more popular personally than his actual policies are.
So, it’s gonna be an uphill battle, but, in the end, it’s worth it.
