Should the GOP "run against the center"?
Some will argue that it's irresponsible to run against this new political center. Extraordinary steps were needed, they say, to deal with an extraordinary financial crisis, and anyway they were supported by a Republican administration. But it tells us something that the original TARP package was passed largely with the votes of those in both parties with safe seats and not in political peril, and that everyone is assuming that Congress won't vote any more TARP money anytime soon. It tells us that the voting public doesn't like this stuff.
It's arguably good policy as well as good politics to run against this over-powerful center. Bailout favoritism and crony capitalism not only misallocate economic resources, they also sap faith in the fairness of our institutions. After World War II, Democrats wanted to retain wartime high taxes, pro-union labor laws, and wage and price controls -- all manipulatable for political benefit by political insiders. Republicans ran in 1946 on the theme of "Had enough?" and won big enough majorities to lower taxes, revise labor laws and abolish controls.
3 comments:
Given the artifice of "The Center" is the domain of the left and in absolutism ain't nowhere near a true mean, median or center, anywhere the GOP runs WILL be hailed as "running against the center". Same old tactic from the left, another bit of "Second verse, same as the first, I'm Enery the Eigth I am..." lame, trite, but must be true, it's on TV with the laxitive, tampon, Enzyte and Sham-wow commercials.
When the pain the voters feel exceeds the mind numbing anaesthetic of the droning litany of good things and largesse that flow from the left, another '94 revolution is a snap, subject to invented crisis from the Hegelian Dialectic play book.
Michael Barone also says Gay Patriot is a "terrific blog" even though nobody in the White Man's Party is ever gonna accept gay Republicans. So one should take his comments with a grain of salt.
Beyond that, Barone's premise is faulty. The number of House seats that are competitive is down to a couple of dozen. We have a self-perpetuating political aristocracy and you won't read anything critical of it in the SC Republican blogdom, except for the occasional call to purge the GOP of insufficiently Lawn Jockey members.
I note that Waldo is either myopic or hasn't read your blog for long Earl...
Post a Comment