Long Knives

I never paid a heck of a lot of attention to Dick Armey when he was in Congress. He wasn't my representative, after all. Today he has an op-ed in the Washington Post so I guess I have to pay some attention. After all, he's gotten a long knife out. 

Where did the revolution go astray? How did we go from the big ideas and vision of 1994 to the cheap political point-scoring on meaningless wedge issues of today — from passing welfare reform and limited government to banning horsemeat and same-sex marriage?

The answer is simple: Republican lawmakers forgot the party's principles, became enamored with power and position, and began putting politics over policy. Now, the Democrats are reaping the rewards of our neglect — and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

In 1989, Newt Gingrich rose to the number two leadership position in the House after a contentious three-way race pitting young backbench conservatives such as myself, Bob Walker, Joe Barton and others against old bulls such as Minority Leader Bob Michel and other ranking members. We thought they suffered from a minority party mindset and were too accommodating of the Democrats. Out of congressional power for nearly two generations, Republicans had become complacent. Senior members of the party were happy to accept the crumbs afforded by Democratic chairmen. Life was comfortable in the minority as long as you did not rock the boat. Members received their perks — such as travel abroad and special banking privileges — and enough pork projects for reelection. The entire Congress lived by the rule of parochial politics.

Gingrich and I and a handful of true believers in Ronald Reagan's conservative vision set the goal of retaking the House. The "Contract With America" outlined our platform of limited government. This vision appealed to both the social and economic wings of the conservative movement; equally important, it included institutional reforms for a Congress that had grown increasingly arrogant and corrupt. The contract nationalized the vision of the Republican Party in a way that unified our base and appealed to independents. We championed national issues, not local pork projects or the creature comforts of high office.

This is essentially echoing the conventional wisdom as reported by the mainstream media. It's all about those wedge issues to Armey. There's a lot more going on here than first meets they eye, however. He's right in one respect, ideas are important. To some extent it is always necessary to temper ideals to the reality of the world as it is. I think the point Armey is making here is that he believes the party went too far toward pragmatism and therefore strayed from idealism.

Pelosi has stated that House committee chairmen will be chosen by seniority. This could backfire on the Democrats, because members from the most consistently partisan districts are usually the ones who stick around the longest. Chairmen have the power of the subpoena; Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the would-be judiciary chairman, has already drafted articles of impeachment for Bush, while others are calling for investigations on the war in Iraq and the federal reaction to Hurricane Katrina. A revenge-hungry Democratic majority, substituting political grudge matches for serious policy, will not remain a majority for long.

How can the Republicans respond?

The leadership must remember that the modern conservative movement is a fusion of social and fiscal conservatives united in their belief in limited government. The party must keep both in the fold. Republicans also need to get back to being the party of big ideas. The greatest threat to American prosperity today is a catastrophic fiscal meltdown resulting from long-term entitlements. Democrats have already lined up behind the solution of raising taxes and reducing benefits. But Americans want more freedom and choice in education, health care and retirement security. Republicans — too busy dreaming up wedge issues to score cheap points against Democrats — have lost sight of their broad national agenda.

The likely Republican losses in next week's elections will not constitute a repudiation of the conservative legacy that drove the Reagan presidency and created the Contract With America. To the contrary, it would represent a rejection of big government conservatism. When we get back to being the party of limited government, putting a national agenda ahead of parochial short-term politics, we will again be a party that the American voters will trust to deal with the serious challenges facing our nation.

Armey wants this to be a wakeup call for the party. It should be, this has been a vicious and tough election cycle. There have been numerous signs that conservatives have become angry at the direction the party has taken. There were Republican incumbents thrown out in Pennsylvania primaries for just that reason. There were other incumbents sent packing elsewhere.

So, in a sense, Armey is correct. The Republicans have not done a good job at sticking to ideals. There are two years to fix that; some folks better get cracking. If the Democrats do take control of the House, they would be forced to deal with a lot of issues instead of simply complaining about everything. I suspect that a Democratic victory is not a sure thing at this point, however. But the Republicans do need to address some of the issues Armey brings up if they want to win in 2008.

UPDATE: Others: The Moderate Voice, PoliBlog, Riehl World View, Alabama Liberation Front,

Other Links to this Post

1. The Moderate Voice — Sunday, 29 October , 2006 @ 9:54 am

2. Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Fingers Ready — Monday, 30 October , 2006 @ 6:32 am