Why We Need the Republicans To Improve

TW: I post on the state of the Republicans frequently because I sincerely believe they have become a force of negativity at a time when the U.S. will either begin to exert superior leadership or slowly watch its power wilt. Demographic, natural resource, geographic and leadership strengths led to the 20th century being the American century. Troubles in places like Asia and Europe helped the process.

Now we face resurgent Asia, somnolent Europe and striving South America. Yet the Republicans have become a party of know-nothings and defiantly assume a defensive anti-intellectualism crouch. The Republicans have adopted an oppose Obama at any turn stance. They gripe about any and all economic initiatives while calling for their own Hooverite contractionary programs, nothing Obama does internationally is good as if W. Bush actually advanced our nation's interests over the past eight years as opposed to set them back almost a generation.

I will acknowledge the Dems left the rails in the late 60's and 70's, it was time of some adjustments. But that was FORTY years ago. Beating the same drums gets very old and more importantly ineffective. The Republicans figured out cutting taxes WITHOUT cutting government services was an electoral gold mine, it was also like injecting heroin into our governmental processes. The patient is now tired and on the verge of terminal illness. Yet they beat the same old drums...

From Economist:
"JONATHAN RAUCH is on fine form in his review of Patrick Alitt's The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History.

'We know what happens when movements or parties continue to stagger forward after running out of ideas: They become zombies. Zombie parties are a recurrent feature of electoral democracies. Unable to articulate any coherent or workable governing philosophy, they mindlessly jab at cultural hot buttons, mechanically repeat hardwired tropes ("cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes"), nurse tribal resentments, ostracize independent thinkers. Above all, they feel positively proud of their doggedness. You can’t talk them out of it. Think of the Republicans in the FDR years, the Democrats in the Reagan years, the British Labour Party in the Thatcher period, and the British Conservative Party in the Blair period. Think of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party for most of the past half-century, or France’s Socialists today. To get a new brain, zombie parties usually need to spend years out of power or wait until a new generation rises to leadership.'

Mr Rauch argues that America's conservatives will never recover, as a serious governing force, until they abandon their sundry illusions about small government. Here he is on the idea that tax cuts shrink government:

'This idea has had the great political merit of uniting supply-siders who never saw a tax cut they didn’t like, libertarians who want to shrink the government, and fiscal traditionalists who oppose deficits. But the past several decades have disproved it. When tax cuts increase deficits (that is, when they are not balanced by spending cuts), they reduce government’s apparent cost. They put government on sale, so to speak. When something goes on sale, people want more of it, and government is no exception. Instead of reducing the supply of government, unbalanced tax-cutting has increased the demand for it.'

Well said, again. But why does almost all the interesting thinking about conservatism these days come from outside the conservative movement?"