When it comes to election victories, I’m not given to irrational exuberance. I’m certainly delighted at my party’s dramatic gains Tuesday both and nationally and locally. But I have limited expectations of the economic and social miracles that can be worked by government and those who populate it.
Whatever good things politicians can do for our society and economy, they can do far more harm, especially to individual freedom. The stunning electoral defeat suffered by Democrats, their coalition and their agenda will prevent them from doing further damage — at least for the time being.
For all the misrepresentations, distortions and rhetorical excesses of the Democrats’ negative campaign ads, their one accurate message was branding Republicans as the “party of no.” As Sarah Palin might say, “You betcha!” Thank goodness the GOP was there to make a stand against this onslaught of wrongheaded and arrogant “progressive” overreach.
Republicans said “no” to socialized medicine; “no” to Obama’s unelected, leftist “czars”; “no” to trillion-dollar deficits and soaring national debt for unproductive “stimulus” boondoggles; “no” to union thugs substituting card check for secret ballots; “no” to a cap-and-trade monstrosity that would empower government bureaucrats and radical enviros to run the nation’s energy sector; and “no” to dictatorial manipulation and disrespect for the legislative process. Judging from the election outcome, most Americans also shouted “No!”
In 2007, anticipating the looming Republican electoral defeat, I wrote: “If the Democrats emerge from the 2008 election with the presidency and a majority in both houses of Congress, I’m confident they’ll use their power to royally screw things up. Assuming the nation survives, that should pave the way for a Republican comeback.”
This election wasn’t so much a vote of confidence for the GOP as it was a repudiation of Obama, Democrats, and smug leftists like Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher. P.J. O’Rourke has called it a “restraining order.” Now it’s up to Republicans to redeem themselves and fashion positive public-policy alternatives. I have no illusions they can engineer a quick fix, although they can stop the bleeding.
Government can’t “create” the millions of productive jobs we need; that’s the role of the private sector. But government can help unleash the creative energy of private enterprise with economic incentives that raise the prospects of greater after-tax returns on work, savings and investment. You don’t do that with strangulating regulations, more government spending and higher tax rates.
Barack Obama is still president and his party clings to a slim majority in the Senate. After the Democrats were spanked in the 1994 mid-term election, President Clinton got the message from voters and made concessions to the new Republican majority. Obama can wield his veto pen and Democrats can obstinately resist true bipartisan reforms proposed by the GOP. If they do, Obama will be gone and Republicans will consolidate their control after the 2012 election. But the nation can’t wait. We face not just serious but potentially fatal long-term structural problems.
Socialized medicine isn’t the answer, but we still need responsible health care reform. Entitlement spending — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — is on a course to national bankruptcy. A remedy will require substantive reforms so as not to impoverish future generations. Public sector pay and pensions are out of control, hemorrhaging unfunded liabilities. The remedy isn’t to increase the tax burden on private-sector taxpayers. Islamic terrorists have been emboldened by Obama’s feckless foreign policy reminiscent of Jimmy Carter’s. This is not the time to slash defense spending which, as a share of GDP, is well below the average of the post-World War II period.
Obama and the Democrats were the victims of their own grandiose, hyped-up pretensions of “hope and change.” Republicans would be wise to lower public expectations to realistic levels and set to work cleaning up the mess.
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
