David

Karki

Read Davids bio and previous columns here

October 15, 2007

While Hillary Marches On, Where Is the Fight in the Right?

I realize that the election is still a year away and more than we know can change between now and then. Nevertheless, it is discouraging if not dismaying to see so little fight left on the conservative side of the aisle.

Republicans in Congress virtually race to see who can be the first to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP program, which is really just HillaryCare in a small initial dose. Republican governors embrace bad liberal ideas like ethanol subsidies and tax increases, seeming to care more about what will make the media like them than implementing the conservatism that got them elected. And the leading GOP presidential candidate in the polls, Rudy Giuliani, has trouble getting to the right of Hillary Clinton on many issues.

All this while the Democratic-led Congress has an all-time low approval rating in the history of polling, and many liberals quietly admit fearing the repellent effect Hillary might have from the top of their ticket. If ever there was a time to go on offense, it's now. And yet, Republicans can't find it within themselves to articulate an opposition approach to save their lives.

What is it that makes Republicans so deathly afraid of fighting for conservative principles? Yes, the mainstream media is in the tank for the Democrats, but that's always been the case. The Democratic base is fired up, with the ascendancy of MoveOn.org, DailyKos, etc. But that is a two-edged sword, since their hard-core, far-left views and their rabid fervency makes it almost impossible for the Democrats to move toward the center in any meaningful way without drawing major heat.

But rather than push conservatism, thus forcing the Democrats to choose between exposing their Marxist ideology for all to see and splitting the party leadership from its fanatical base, the GOP is embroiled in its own potential fracturing between leadership and base – no matter how much the specter of Hillary should act as a uniting force.

I am beginning to think that it's not the Democrats that the GOP fears, but perhaps the people themselves. It's like a parent trying to discipline a spoiled child for the first time after all that over-indulgence. The parent knows what has to be done, but also knows a ferocious temper tantrum is going to result before things get better thereafter. However, no matter how reluctant that prospect may make the parent, a good one nevertheless forges ahead with resolve, knowing that to not act will be worse for the child in the end, unaware and unappreciative of that fact though the tot may presently be.

The GOP needs to be the calm, mature adult in response to the Democrats' imitation of Veruca Salt from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” (“Don't care how, I want it now!”)  And it isn't that hard, provided the inner resolve is there. Take, for example, Hillary's retirement account proposal. (Or any of her patently redistributionist ideas; they're all pretty much interchangeable.)

Why on earth should it be the federal government's business to steal from those who've been successful, precisely because they've been successful, working their whole lifetime so as to give a gift to their children at its end only to have government seize it from them instead, and give it to those who weren't frugal or wise or responsible enough to save for their own retirement during their working years? Isn't this an obvious disincentive to work hard for the former and an obvious incentive to be irresponsible for the latter? Or more bluntly, a punishing of the good and rewarding of the bad? (In which case wouldn't one have to be a fool not to expect more bad behavior and less good as a natural result?)

Why is your retirement even anyone else's responsibility but yours? And since when is your financial difficulty justification for simply taking someone else's property, that they have worked for and earned? By that standard, robbing a bank would be just fine so long as the ill-gotten booty was dropped off at a charity.

Merely describing this stuff for what it really is, in clear and simple terms, and then posing a few logical questions based on it is all it takes. And it doesn't take great intelligence to figure this out, just as any decent parent knows that discipline is better than spoiling. But it does take resolve and firmness in one's beliefs.

The right thing to do isn't often the easy thing to do, and that is the case here. Turning P.J. O'Rourke's classic sarcastic quip on the Republican party motto – “We're just like the Democrats, only not quite as much!” – into the actual motto is easy. Fighting for conservative and moral principles is right.

Now, for the bigger question: Do Republicans even have those conservative beliefs anymore? After all, to fight for them one must first still possess them. I guess in the year to come, we shall all find out.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK083. Request permission to publish here.