Posted by
Michael Avari on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 7:11:41 PM
After last year’s impressive win by Barack Obama, I wrote an article, “What the Republican Party must do now” in which I proffered the notion that it must return to conservative principles, in a principled manner.
Yesterday’s results are meaningful for two reasons, but not because Republicans won two state gubernatorial elections. We still don’t know what Chris Christie believes and what he will do. Rather, the results show that voters a) quickly tire with the false promise of omnipotent and benevolent government, no matter how they are temporarily seduced into trading their freedom for illusory protection; b) seek a return to wholesome family values, as demonstrated by Maine’s vote to overturn gay marriage laws. 60% of States now have rejected such unholy unions.
“Conservatism is too important to be left to the Republican Party”, says Richard Morris. Unless a putative conservative party can recreate 50 state recruiting and funding machines, the Party is conservatives’ only hope.
One day after the swearing in ceremonies in New Jersey and Virginia the distinction between the two parties will blur again into torpor unless the GOP seizes this new opportunity.
Now is the time to sharpen differences and shore up the foundation of liberty and capitalism. Now is the time to become an incandescent beacon for the majority of Americans who seek refuge from cultural decadence and government enforced dissolution of the inalienable relationship between man and his Creator. Now is the time to be stalwart in demanding of those we elect the highest standards of ethics and behavior expected of humble representatives and employees of the people.
In the prior article, I outlined nine policy recommendations derived from core conservative principles. Here are post 2009 pre-2010 election refinements:
- Smaller government: total public debt is rapidly approaching 100% of GDP, putting us in the class with banana republics. This is the basis of an argument that is not only financial, but one that must be expostulated for the preservation of liberty; for individual freedom is inversely proportional to the size of government.
- An end to taxation of capital and the burdening of its productive use; otherwise we will surely have less of both. There is, too, a seething discontent with incremental taxation at local and state levels on every sort of daily life from property taxes to usage fees on electricity, heat, telephone, and television, to surcharges on mass transportation, small business, and freelance work. To become a party with nationwide appeal, national conservative voices must be raised against local threats to freedom.
- Fastidious respect for our Constitution and the beliefs on which it is written. We might start with limiting the power of the Executive by recalling all “czars” until they are confirmed by the Senate.
- Free trade and fair trade: it is time to impose strict product quality compliance on Chinese imports, to give most favored nation status only to countries who agree to float their currency against the dollar, and to make the United States’ tax and regulation codes business-friendly to attract investment.
- A stable and predictable monetary system. The Fed’s power should be clipped such that it can only protect against inflation or depression. It should not be given regulatory responsibility as it does not report to any branch of government. And permitting it to chase interest rates is giving too much power to too few.
- Minimalist government intervention in the economy: an end to the “too-big-to-fail” fallacy, a repudiation of TARP and economic “stimulus”, and government’s divestiture of all private enterprise including AIG, GM, bank warrants, and Freddie and Fannie.
- A strong national defense—and that must, now more than ever, start at the borders of the United States.
- A respect for all life. As President Reagan said, “Abortion is either the taking of a human life or it isn't. And if it is—and medical technology is increasingly showing it is—it must be stopped.”
- Zero tolerance for abuse of power. It is time, again, to revisit term limits, or at least to end all corporate lobbying and campaign contributions—sources of fraud and corruption. Corporations are not people and should not be afforded the rights of an individual citizen.
This is the time for audacity, for courage, and clarity. This is no time for diffidence, for moderation, nor ambiguity.