The World Needs a Strong GOP
Republicans can show the way with careful fiscal conservatism at home and quiet idealism abroad.

By DAVID DAVIS

It is always hazardous for outsiders to offer opinions on a foreign country’s political landscape, and as a lifetime admirer of America and its values I have always been cautious in doing so. Nevertheless, the world today is as volatile and dangerous as it has been for a long time, and it needs a strong and coherent Republican Party leading American opinion and policy. With the streets of the Arab world in flames, an ever more ascendant and ambitious China, and a global financial crisis that has not been well managed, let alone resolved, the rest of the world needs America to be a confident champion of Western values.

As a political movement, the various strands of Republican opinion have a force and vigor rarely witnessed elsewhere in the Western world. What is more, each strand brings its own wisdom and insight to the political debate.

Take, for example, the tea party movement. European liberals deride it as unsophisticated and simplistic. Yet we should remember that they said much the same of Ronald Reagan when he was alive, even as they now recognize him as the great, world-class statesman that he was. Discovering the right answer after the event is a luxury often exercised by the political left, but not one that we can afford now.

So the tea party brings vigor, but it also reflects a skepticism about big government that is a wisdom of our times. In the aftermath of a historically unprecedented bank rescue and economic stimulus, and in the absence of a serious intellectual answer to the banking crisis, who is to say that they are entirely wrong?

Similarly, it is fashionable to dismiss the neoconservatives for their aggressive foreign policy. I am uncomfortable with some of the incompetences of Western interventions, but the current explosion of unrest across the Arab world adds some validity to their claim that democracy is a universal human value wanted by everybody, irrespective of their culture, religion and history.

Even more unfashionable with the political left are the social conservatives in Republican ranks. It may be that the problems facing the U.S. economy will ensure that social issues take a back seat to candidates’ fiscal policies, but to America’s 60 million evangelical Christians social issues still matter. Those candidates seeking the Republican nomination in 2012 who choose to ignore social-issues voters will do so at their peril.

It would be naive to claim that the Republican Party, with its 47 senators, 241 representatives and millions of voters, can be neatly divided into a small number of distinct factions. It is potentially problematic for the Republicans, however, that there are groups within the GOP which hold widely different views not only about the party’s policy priorities, but also about what those policies should be.

For instance, there is a sharp divide within the GOP on federal spending. A recent Pew survey showed that Republicans identifying themselves as tea party supporters would broadly welcome cuts in spending on education, social-security and environmental programs, while non-tea party Republicans were more supportive of increased spending in these areas.

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The interview focuses on three specific fields: Ronald Reagan’s fight for the GOP nomination, how the Gipper changed his party, and what President Reagan’s legacy really means.

Today, many have fallen victim to a form of presentism: a belief that just because things turned out the way they did, the course of history was inevitable. President Reagan’s fight for the GOP nomination was far from inevitable, and his election in 1980 was even less certain at the time.

This year, the first GOP presidential debate will be held at the Reagan Library. From around the country, every Republican now claims to be a Reaganite. However, things were very different when Ronald Reagan was seeking his party’s nomination. Reagan had run against Gerald Ford, the sitting president, in the 1976 for the GOP nomination. Much of the GOP’s establishment reviled Reagan. Conservatives were looked down upon in the party. As such, President Reagan was painted as a far-right extremist that had no hope in a general election. President Reagan’s win in 1980 reshaped the Republican Party, and changed the American political landscape forever.

Historians have made a conscious effort to whitewash President Reagan’s true legacy. Members of the GOP establishment claim Reagan as one of theirs today. We are told that Ronald Reagan was a great pragmatist and that he only spoke ‘conservative’ to appease the base. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ronald Reagan was a conservative champion, and the elites hated him for that. Reagan’s conservatism guided him throughout his presidency.

Listen online:

Reagan Interview with Craig Shirley

Stick a fork in him. George W. Bush is done with politics.

The ex-President told C-SPAN he has no plans to raise cash, stump for Republican candidates and even appear on television.

“I don’t want to go out and campaign for candidates,” he said in an interview that will air on Sunday. “I don’t want to be viewed as a perpetual money-raiser.”

Despite Ryan’s common-sense approach to governance (which, obviously, is somewhat comforting given his position as budget chairman) Bachmann and the Tea Party Express are still trying to steal the show and stand apart from the Republican Party. Like many conservatives, I have some concerns with the direction Speaker John Boehner et al may take the party, but allowing Paul Ryan to deliver the speech gives conservatives — you know, the Americans who matter — the chance to hear what the GOP wants for the country and hold them to account later. Perhaps it’s somewhat idealistic, but I’m in the “give the party a chance” camp for now.

Like most people, I’ll be keeping Fox News on to watch the official response, not partaking in the soon-to-be-failed attempt by the Tea Party Express to replace said response. Don’t expect any servers to be crashing on their website.

In related news:

If the GOP does have a Michele Bachmann problem, it’s an issue it may have to face in the lead up to 2012. Bachmann recently traveled to Iowa for a fundraiser. When asked several weeks ago if she was considering a presidential run, she said, “I’m going to Iowa—there’s your answer.”

Listen online:

Strictly Right 78

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Harry Reid, claims that there will not be a vote in the Senate to repeal Obamacare because it’s just too popular to vote on: “not only would repeal not pass, but according to a poll by AP over the weekend, three out of four people don’t want it to.” Complete and utter nonsense from the Senate Majority Leader.

The truth of the matter is that Senator Reid cannot be sure that repeal would fail in the Democrat controlled Senate. With the evident popularity of the repeal movement, the Democrats cannot afford a vote on the bill. If the bill fails to pass the Senate, so-called blue-dog Democrats would once again be forced to show their true socialist colors. If a repeal bill were to pass, President Obama would veto the bill, further alienating himself from the electorate.

The repeal vote is a bold and necessary move from the House Republicans. Now the real work begins: dismantling the monstrosity of Obamacare piece by piece.

Listen Online:

Strictly Right 75

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Jim DeMint, Conservative of the Year
By: Erick Erickson

“I want to sincerely congratulate Senator DeMint on this award. Fully aware that Human Events cannot give the award to me every year, Human Events has made the only other choice they could make. Tough, courageous, rock-solid and unflinching, Jim DeMint charts the way for all of us in truly historic times.”

— Rush Limbaugh
Conservative of the Year, 2007

He did not start out a conservative fighter. He was no warrior when he first arrived on Capitol Hill in 1999. Jim DeMint had replaced Rep. Bob Inglis in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. Inglis had vacated the seat to run a losing race against Senator Ernest Hollins.

DeMint’s tenure started out like that of most freshmen congressmen — anonymous and committed to bringing home the bacon, much like Rep. Inglis who, when Senator DeMint moved up to the Senate, moved back into his old House seat until the tea party movement threw him out in 2010.

Something happened to DeMint though. In a National Journal article last month, Michael Hirsh fingered the fight over No Child Left Behind, which DeMint originally opposed, but then ultimately supported.

Among the conservatives who cooled on Bush was Sen. Jim DeMint. DeMint recalled that Bush told him, at a White House meeting back in 2001, when the South Carolinian was a second-term House member, that Bush would fight for “flexibility” for state charter schools as part of his new federal education program, No Child Left Behind, according to a DeMint aide, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. DeMint was then far from the small-government agitator and tea party champion he has become. But the Bush plan disturbed DeMint, and he decided to vote no—until the president called him in and said, “Jim, I promise to get this [state flexibility] back in conference. But I need you not to make an issue of it on the House floor,” the aide recalled. “DeMint said, ‘OK, Mr. President, I’ll trust you.’ But Bush didn’t even lift a finger to get it in conference.”

For DeMint, it was the beginning of a decade of disappointments in his president and his party, as he gradually became more alienated from the GOP leadership.

After the No Child Left Behind incident, DeMint started teaming up with other conservative fighters like Mike Pence (R-IN) to fight back. Congressman Mike Pence tells Human Events, “Senator Jim DeMint is a force of nature in the conservative movement. His steadfast and consistent stand in defense of fiscal discipline, a strong national defense and traditional moral values is unparalleled in Washington, DC and should give hope to millions of conservatives across the country as they look for conservative leadership in our nation’s capital.”

Elected as social conservatives who were fiscally responsible, the GOP under George W. Bush had largely become pro-life statists with even Fred Barnes championing the idea of “big government conservatives” in the Weekly Standard. DeMint had had enough.

In 2004, Jim DeMint ran for the United States Senate for the seat vacated by Ernest Hollings. He ran against Inez Tenenbaum, the state schools superintendent. Decisively beating her by over 9%, DeMint’s win put both of South Carolina’s Senate seats in the hands of Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction.

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If Speaker(!) Boehner’s letter to Senate Democrats is any indication, it would appear as though the GOP has adopted a ‘new tone.’ House Republicans have promised a vote to repeal Obamacare. In response, Senate Democrats publicly sent a letter to Speaker Boehner, promising to block a bill that would repeal the Left’s crowing achievement. Boehner’s response is exactly what is needed from the GOP:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office

The GOP is geared up for a serious fight for the soul of the country. Republicans were not elected because people were enamored with the Party brand. Rather, the voters wanted, and still want, a party that will stop Obama and the Democrats from imposing their socialist vision on the country.

Speaker Boehner’s letter sets the right tone; a fighting tone. The next two years have to be about repairing the damage Obama and his ilk have inflicted on the country. In that struggle there can be no compromise, no retreat and no surrender.