Newt Gingrich writes on the potentially bleak future of the Republican majority in Congress – while I don’t (yet) see a Democratic landslide in the making (the Democrats are as disorganized and ineffective as the GOP is at the moment), it isn’t impossible and GOP policymakers have every reason to be very worried about our party’s prospects in November.
Gingrich gives a fairly respectable five-point plan:
Today, in order to win the future, there are five challenges that America must meet:
1. Confronting a world in which America’s enemies, including the irreconcilable wing of Islam and rogue dictatorships, could acquire and use nuclear or biological weapons;
2. Defending God in the public square;
3. Protecting America’s unique civilization;
4. Competing in the global economy in an era of the economic rise of China and India, which will require transformations in litigation, education, taxation, regulation, and environmental, energy and health policies for America to continue to be the most successful economy in the world;
5. Promoting active, healthy aging so more people can live longer, which will require dramatic transformation in pensions, Social Security and health care.
I like Gingrich’s idea of “winning the future.” What the GOP needs to do is first, acknowledge that people are worried. Gas prices are up. Terrorism is still a threat. The situation in Iraq looks bleak to those who get their news from the MSM spin machine, and even the optimists have cause for alarm. Even though the economy really is solid, and people feel their own economic circumstances are fine, there’s still a widespread (and again, media fed) perception that the economy is on a downward slope. The ongoing transition from an economy based on heavy manufacturing to an economy based on 21st Century technologies is a difficult one – and has been for the past 30 years.
What the GOP has to do is say, we know what the problems are. Here are the solutions. Here’s how we can unleash the creativity of the American people to bring this country more fully into the 21st Century. Here’s how we can provide vouchers to allow workers in obsolescing industries to retrain for the future. Here’s how we can reform education to make American students able to have the skills that Indian students do. Here’s how we can reform patent law to foster rather than hamper real innovation. Here’s how we can keep taxes low and spending down to make government more responsive to the people rather than a fat, bloated monstrosity.
The GOP could do this is they had the vision that they did in 1994 – a vision of changing the culture in Washington. However, today’s GOP has become part of the corrupt Washington culture. That has to change.
The Democrats have no vision other than their constant complaints. If the Republicans can respond with real policies and say what they would do, this election could see an even stronger GOP majority. However, if all we have is the GOP defending the status quo and the Democrats attacking it, this election will not be kind to the Republican majority. Vision wins elections, and right now neither party has anything that looks even remotely like a real vision. We can turn this around, the question is whether the culture of waste and arrogance in Washington has so poisoned the GOP that they no longer have the vision required to truly lead.
You think the GOP had the required vision in 1994 to effect the solutions you recommend. Then why didn’t they achieve that vision? What we got from that group was the last 12 years that get us to where we are today. Even assuming that the current version of the GOP can organize around a vision, (1) why should I believe it; and (2) even if they mean it, why will the outcome be different this time? One definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Why would you believe a politican ?
This all sounds well and good however; with the “leadership” that is in place at the GOP……………………………GOOD LUCK!
They actually did fairly well – the budget went into the black (for a while), welfare reform passed, etc. Remember that back then they had to deal with a Democratic president who would actually use his veto power, unlike the current denizen of the Oval Office…
Washington corrupts over time, and the fact is that in order to be reelected, Congresscritters feel like they have to bring home the pork — which is why neither party seems really serious about cutting down on Washington’s spending binge.
“and people feel their own economic circumstances are fine”
I think you mean Jay Reding feels his own economic circumstances are fine. “People” feel otherwise. 60% of Americans are not basing their perception of economic conditions based on nonexistent doomsday reports from the “liberal media”.
As for Gingrich, when he talks, the GOP would be wise to listen, but I’m not seeing much in his manifesto are more narrowly-defined than the half-assed stuff Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been toying with in the last few months….which you’ve criticized thoroughly.
“the budget went into the black (for a while),”
Thanks to Clinton drawing a line in the sand against budget-busting GOP tax cut proposal after budget-busting GOP tax-cut proposal.
“welfare reform passed”
Thanks to an economic boom brought on following Clinton’s 1993 reforms, welfare reform wasn’t quite as disastrous as it otherwise would have been.
“etc.”
That’s it! Two things, and you’re already out of Contract with America bullet points that actually became law?
Consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in almost four years, a private research group said Tuesday.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1887942
The economy didn’t pick up until the late 1990s. In 1996, Clinton signed a major cut to capital gains taxes – which happened to have been one of Bob Dole’s campaign promises shortly before.
The economic boom didn’t really start until 1996, and welfare reform was only signed because Dick Morris told Clinton that he would lose reelection if he didn’t do something. Ironically, it was probably one of the best policies Clinton ever implemented, and probably one of the best policies of the 1990s. (Along with the BEA/PAYGO and the 1996 capital gains tax cut.)
“Consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in almost four years, a private research group said Tuesday.”
Hmmm…that’s one take on the matter. Here’s another that’s not quite so agreeable: http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/economy/
and another: http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/RLS2190.pdf#search='disapprove%20of%20Bush%20economy%202006‘