What a great article by Tony Snow today:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Democrats gibber about Republicans’ writhing in a culture of corruption, they’re on to something — but not what they think. The Republican Party in Washington is in trouble not because it’s overrun by crooks, but because it’s packed with cowards — and has degenerated into a caricature of the party that swept to power 11 years ago promising to take on the federal bureaucracy and liberate the creative genius of American society.
The collapse stems from the simplest and most natural of causes, the survival instinct. Within months of seizing power in 1995, Republicans began backing away from Big Ideas, from tort reform to the necessary overhaul of the Social Security system. They started consulting pollsters to assay “correct” issues and positions. They played it safe — or so they thought.
Over time, imagination-grabbing ideas melted away. Gone was the Reaganite breadth of vision, and in its place stood the musty idol of Incumbency. Republicans drew the wrong morals from the decline and fall of Newt Gingrich. They thought his boldness got him in trouble, and chose to crib plays from the Bill Clinton playbook — tacking left, at least oratorically, so as to appease, rather than confront, their critics.
[…]We live in what ought to be an era of Republican triumphalism. The president’s one reliable bit of domestic-policy conservatism, his tax-cut agenda, has succeeded brilliantly. The most recent Commerce Department figures peg the third quarter economic growth rate at a sizzling 4.3 percent — despite the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the oil shocks that followed.
Republicans have won the battle over whether centralized bureaucracies can eradicate poverty, or perform social services more efficiently than private or volunteer operations. Throughout the country, the same patterns appear: Where elected officials govern with a light touch and without imposing onerous tax and regulatory burdens, prosperity flourishes — and people flock to the scene. “progressive” states, on the other hand, are becoming empty husks, with more rigid class distinctions than in any other section of the country.
The GOP also wins big on values. Virtually every time the ACLU files a lawsuit, Democrats lose supporters. Despite these advantages, however, the GOP founders. Its Washington potentates simply refuse to embrace the party’s ideals or successes (including the war). They have forgotten the most important rule of political survival: If you want to remain an incumbent for long, you don’t jettison your principles. You act on them.
[…]Capitol Hill Republicans now admit their Democratic colleagues don’t want peace — they want the Alamo. So the GOP is fighting back. Hastert approved calling the bluff of anti-victory Democrats last week by demanding a floor vote on the idea of vamoosing Iraq immediately. He scored another triumph this week by restoring the good name of the National Christmas Tree.
The Politicians who put their finger to the wind to tell which way they should go disgust me. The Republicans in DC have been doing this for some time until they finally grew a pair and forced the 403-3 vote. Now the President is on the offensive and I like it. Please keep it up.
“I didn’t leave the Republican party. The party left me.”
Ronald Reagan
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