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What the Republican Party must do now, 2009

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:

  1. 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. 
  2. 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. 
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. A strong national defense—and that must, now more than ever, start at the borders of the United States.
  8. 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.”
  9. 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.

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What the Republican Party must do now

Posted by Michael Avari on Sunday, November 30, 2008 6:14:08 PM

The election results were good for the Republican Party. Cleansing and catharsis foster deep thought about the future and provide the first steps toward renewal and health. Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or independent, you must accept that the permanent destruction and defeat of one party is not a sustainable model for national vitality. Even thinking Liberals find appeal in Conservative arguments about getting government off our backs. The future health of the Republican Party is a necessary condition for the future health of our country.

In The Wall Street Journal on November 5, “Conservatism Isn’t Finished”, Thomas Frank, a Liberal, wrote,

“The conservative movement, after all, came to Washington under a banner of ‘reform’ but promptly turned Congress over to lobbyists and opened countless regulatory agencies to the industries they regulated. The movement clamored for fiscal responsibility and proceeded to outsource, at vast expense, every government operation it could. It boasted of its business savvy but just couldn’t see the housing bubble bursting. It looked to the Northern Mariana Islands as a beacon of human freedom. It insisted that Tom DeLay was a man of integrity.”

This, obviously, cannot stand.

I believe the Republican Party must turn again to its Conservative roots. Not neo-Conservatism, not compassionate Conservatism, not this or that Conservatism, but pure Conservatism in the tradition of Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley, Jr. Conservatism founded on firm principles is inherently compassionate because, above all, individual rights and freedoms are standards by which all policy is judged.

Conservatism, with an intellectual structure, is founded on:
- Individual rights over state’s rights, and state’s rights over Federal rights;
- Free enterprise;
- Respect for the Constitution as the ultimate guidepost for the protection of individual rights.

Each of these has policy implications:

  1. Smaller government. Our national debt is now larger than the GDP of all but 12 countries. We cannot saddle our children and grandchildren with such burdens.
  2. Re-engineering the tax code to encourage enterprise and business creation by catalyzing capital formation. The ultimate tax proposal in this regard was designed by Milton Freidman in 1960: the flat tax.
  3. Resisting the attempt to modify the Constitution de facto by aggressive legislation.
  4. Continued pursuit of free trade, as long it is fair trade.
  5. A monetary system that measures and lubricates real production; i.e., reining in that “fourth branch” of government, the Federal Reserve.
  6. Minimalist government intervention in the economy: a reversal of the trend we have witnessed in the last month.
  7. A strong national defense to protect our liberties, but an end to the interventionism of the Bush doctrine.
  8. A continued respect for all life, but a divorce from right wing evangelicals with narrow social agendas whose desired intrusiveness in private lives is counter-Conservative.
  9. Zero tolerance for abuse of power from any man, Republican or Democrat; and the highest ethical standards.

Other policy implications issue from the core principles. Conservative literature that was so prolific in the mid 1900’s provide rigorous theoretical underpinnings for these principles. Together they could serve as the new platform for the Republican Party, or the platform for the new Republican Party.

Congratulations to President-elect Obama for elevating our country to judge a man “by the content of his character, not the color of his skin” as Martin Luther King dreamed.

And for others who are dismayed by the election result: do not go gently into that good night. Conservatism must come back.

Let’s be clear and objective: the Republicans wounded America. America answered back. Now how will the Party respond? The answer depends on whether we believe — deeply believe, in Conservative principles.

I do.

Because if we do, we know a) Liberalism will not work, b) the American thirst for freedom will not remain unquenched; therefore, c) Conservatism will be resurgent.

Clarity can be a wonderful thing.

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