When I began VoR almost six years ago, I thought of it as a non-partisan forum where all good ideas would get a fair hearing. While I hold many views that are considered liberal, I also believe that a strong case can be made for many policies that please classic conservatives— free trade, school vouchers, an end to all forms of subsidies, including for home ownership, more accountability in health care that promotes personal responsibility, using market mechanisms to achieve environmental goals, and an aggressive policy against terrorism and America’s enemies.
Over the years, to my chagrin, I have found myself increasingly unable to find much in the Republican Party to defend. I have tried where appropriate to give credit to the GOP and its ideas, but the Party has been taken over by extremist ideology and is being led by conspicuously ignorant people. I regretfully came to the conclusion that reason dictates a stand against the Republican Party. Until the GOP purges itself of its anti-science, irrational, and hateful elements, Republicans are enemies of the public good and must be confronted and defeated.
Two episodes this week emphasized how out of step the GOP has become, both with reality and the best interests of the nation.
The first was the publication of an independent analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities of GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal (The Center is non-partisan and well-respected for its serious scholarship). The Center’s findings are shocking. At a time when wealth in America has become ever more concentrated, when the middle class has seen its purchasing power erode, and after a decade of no net job creation, Ryan has put forth a budget that cuts benefits for the middle class while cutting taxes for the ultra-wealthy—to such an extent that even with spending cuts, his plan wouldn’t balance the budget.
Rep. Ryan supposedly represents the GOP’s moderate wing, but his budget proposal is a radical plan that would permanently weaken the middle class and concentrate wealth even more at the top. He’s proposing massive transfers from the lower classes to the upper classes, this after decades in which the wealthy have benefited by orders of magnitude more than everyone else.
One of the great mysteries of American politics is how the GOP can convince a single person that the party is on the side of working families and the middle class. How can the lower-income whites who dominate the Tea Party believe that Republicans represent their interests?
The second thing that brought home how extreme the Republican Party has become was a mailer I received from the National Republican Congressional Committee. Here are a few of the questions in their survey, followed by my comments:
- Should the government take more than 50% of anyone’s income in taxes?
The government doesn’t even take close to this for any income group.
- Which aspect of the Democrat plan for a Washington takeover of health care do you find most objectionable?
This falsehood (the proposed plan is based entirely on private insurance) was followed by additional falsehoods.
- Democrats have recently proposed ACORN inspired “Universal Voter Registration.” Election laws of states would be thrown out and they would be required to register every person on the welfare rolls, unemployment lists, holders of driver’s licenses or any other name on a state-held list and register them to vote. Do you think this will lead to massive voter fraud and is a cynical attempt by the Democrats to cement their power forever?
Voter fraud is a GOP strawman, and the undercurrent of racism here is palpable.
- Do you think Democrats and Obama are more concerned with appeasing petty foreign despots and being “popular” on the world stage than they are with the sovereign national security of the United States?
It’s hard to know where to begin on this one since it’s so absurd.
The mailer had nothing affirmative, just one falsehood and slander after another.
I sincerely hope that the sane people in the Republican Party can regain control and return it to its roots. The Party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower would be a welcome partner at the legislative table, since Democrats clearly do not have all the right ideas. I thought this would happen after the GOP’s resounding defeat in 2008; instead, the extremist elements became even more empowered.
It seems that the American electorate will need to rout the GOP at the polls for at least a couple more cycles before the party’s moderates can gain the upper hand. While Republicans are sure to gain in the 2010 midterms, Democratic retention of both the House and the Senate may finally send a signal that Americans are tired of the GOP’s scorched-earth policy and obstructionist tactics.
Jason Scorse