It's April Fools day but there's nothing funny about the ongoing self destruction of America's conservative political party. The Republican Party has had a really bad decade or so. The gap between the Republican Party's principles and its performance in office makes the Grand Canyon look like a pothole. What is needed is some serious soul and mind searching by the party whose job it is to caution against over reaching. The real life failures of conservative public policies were the result of the abandonment of intellectual conservatism. From 1994 to 2008 the Republican Party had unprecedented opportunities to put its principles into action. Unfortunately, they pursued conservative policies far too liberally, leaving our economy in disrepair and our place among the international community of nations diminished. Unregulated markets are not any better than over-regulated ones. In fact, it turns out they cost taxpayers even more. Cowboy unilateralism and American empire building don't make America stronger; they make it weaker.
Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post today that vividly illustrates the road map to Republican extinction. It it he simply pretends that the last decade or so did not happen. He repeats tired lies long disproved. For example, it seems that no amount of reality can stop some conservatives from claiming that "small businesses" will be crippled by Obama tax hikes. This lie didn't fly in the election, why does anyone think it will fly now? Who is the audience for this claim? It's not actual small businesses, because they know very well that their tax burdens will decrease, not increase. Does Gregg and other like him really think small businessmen are all as dumb as Joe the Plumber?
Gregg warns ominously that Obama wants to take the country "sharply to the left." Once again, I wonder who is he talking to? Sharply to the left is the only way to get back to the middle, isn't it?
Gregg does provide some reasonable analysis though, writing "The president's budget makes clear that a huge expansion of government is not just about today's economic downturn. Once the recession is behind us, this budget will continue pushing for more and more government in our everyday lives. Instead of tightening Uncle Sam's belt the way so many American families are cutting back these days, the president's proposal spends so aggressively that it essentially adds $1 trillion to the debt, on average, every year." This take is essentially true, but for the exaggeration about our "everyday lives" and the analogical head fake about Uncle Sam's budget. Despite dogged faith-based protest from the rigid right, government spending can and does stimulate economic activity. But then again, what do nine out of ten economists know anyway?
Obviously, the Democratic agenda includes increases in economic regulation and in government economic assistance. The only people to whom such promises seem onerous are those who benefit from economic inequality and those fooled into thinking they would be hurt by increased regulation of the economy. Since real small businessmen know they won't be hurt, the Republicans must be talking to big businessmen when they intone against a 3% increase in income over $250,000 (which is actually just a return to Clinton Era tax rates). So small businesses and "job creators" must be poll tested code words that really mean large businesses and wealthy individuals. By the way, if employers are "job creators" then workers must be "business creators." When a baseball team wins the World Series, does anybody really believe that the manager deserves more credit than the players?
I think Americans need to be very patient with the Republican Party these days. They are floundering and in serious denial. Until they get past this stage of grieving and on to a more productive one, it may be best just to gently nudge them along. Without a reasonable opposition party, the Democrats could go just as nuts.