As a party, the Republicans have lost their way and lost the confidence of conservatives. In fact, a recent poll by the WSJ showed that simply not being Republican was enough to increase your popularity:
Finally, what probably accounts for a good measure of the confidence and support the Obama administration has enjoyed is the fact that they are not Republicans. Virtually all Americans, more than eight in 10, blame Republicans for the current economic woes, and the only two leaders with lower approval ratings than Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.The Conservative Movement, however, is still strong and unchanged. The Republicans left conservative principles and the Republicans got left behind in the past 2 election cycles. With the negative image of the Republicans being so strong that ordinary people are ready to throw themselves at the feet of the nearest liberal Democrat, it's likely time for the Republican Party to go away. We have not seen a true shake-up in political parties since the turn of the Twentieth Century and it may be high time for that 'change.'
In 1994, Republicans all got on board for Gingrich's 'Contract with America.' It stated the guiding principles of Conservatism for all the signatories and provided a promise by all of the signatories to abide by these principles. The 'Contract for America' is an excellent example of saying what you mean and doing what you say and that is what the America people desire most. We want politicians that speak the same language we do and do not parse their words in such a way to have double meanings. We want politicians that tell us they believe in X-Y-Z, why they believe in X-Y-Z, and how they intend to accomplish X-Y-Z.
Because of the backlash against Republicans and their abandonment of conservatism, it is likely too arduous to attempt to remake the party into the party of conservatives. Hence, I believe it is time for Conservatives to form, along with any truly Conservative Republicans, a new party. The new party should welcome our Libertarian compatriots and prevent any moderates or centrists from joining. I would call this party the Constitutionalist Party.
As the Constitution is the highest law in the land, the first plank of the Constitutionalist Party is to promise to uphold the Constitution. This is not the lip-service that all our elected officials utter when they are sworn in. I'm talking about the underlying promise that goes with upholding the Constitution. Constitutionalists will promise to make no laws that abridge or abrogate the Constitution and to actively abolish all laws that currently exist that do not pass the Constitutional muster. Additionally, lawmakers, judges, and the president shall be prosecuted for failure to uphold the Constitution through their actions per their oaths. This is a tall order but it is the cornerstore of Conservative thought. By following this prime directive, the federal government will shrink and the rights of the States and the People will be restored and America will return to the Representative Republic it was intended to be.
The second plank is to restore the free market. Eliminate the capital gains tax. Eliminate the corporate tax. Eliminate the death tax. Eliminate payroll and income taxes. Replace all of these taxes with the Fair Tax as described by Neal Boortz and John Linder. Under the Fair Tax, each consumer pays the same tax as every other consumer, so rich consumers pay the same tax as poorer consumer because the tax is on services and new goods. Used goods, medications, and food would not be subject to this tax, so there is still a component to the system that provides consumers with the necessities of life and the choice of whether they can afford to spend the money. If you don't spend, you don't pay taxes. But the key aspect of this system is that you keep what you earn, thereby providing more capital in the market. More capital in the market means growth. No capital gains and corporate taxes means that this country will become the country of choice for corporations to set up. Which in turn means more jobs, more money, and more growth.
The third plank is secure our country. We have to have an America-first stance. There's no one else looking out for us, so we had better be on our guard. We need to reform our immigration laws so that we better control the types of immigrants that are allowed into this country. We don't want tens of thousands of people coming here looking for a better life and forcing our citizens out of jobs. Americans will have first crack at the jobs created by our burgeoning economy created by the tax reform. Then, as labor shortages begin to develop, we can pick and choose the immigrants with skill sets to fill those jobs. We also need to treat illegal immigration as an invasion. We need to secure the southern border and the northern border (before it becomes the portal for illegal immigration) and put the word out that individuals coming across our borders illegally will be treated as invaders and subject to deadly force. The mother countries that allow or, in some cases, even encourage this invasion will also be put on notice that if they cannot or will not stop this, they will be subject to military retaliation. The threat of force is often enough to deter the weak-minded and weak-spined.
The fourth plank is freedom. The Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed by our creator with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights provides the protections of those rights from government infringement. But nowhere is there any guarantees of equal outcomes. It is time to end all government interventions that claim to "level the playing field." "Leveling the playing field" is nothing more than providing equal outcomes for unequal efforts and is unconstitutional. Under the Constitution, we are equal and are free to pursue our happiness, provided it does not infringe upon any other citizen's rights. But there are no guarantees, no government bailouts, no government handouts, no welfare, no social security. You are free but you are also on your own, as it should be. The only thing the federal government is suppose to do is provide for the common defense and regulate commerce.
The fifth plank is to end the police state. We have traded our freedoms for security for too long. We criminalize the innocent under the guise of protecting the public from the guilty. We assume that everyone is a criminal when they have committed no crime. The local and national police agencies are nothing more than tax collectors that provide little in the way of actual security. True security lies with the individual, not the state. Our forefathers knew this and wrote it into our Constitution. Let us police those that are not citizens and stop harassing our citizens. The only police we legitimately should have are those that prevent illegal immigration, smuggling, and other incursions into our sovereign territories.
The sixth plank is to eliminate lobbying entirely. We want the government to be of the people, not the well-connected or well-heeled. We elect our representatives to represent our views. What we have today is representatives that represent the views of special-interest lobbyist groups. This will likely be the most arduous of all tasks as the existing politicians and their financiers, the lobbyists, will not accede this arrangement easily. Campaign finance reform will be necessary to enact this cultural shift. First and foremost, representatives should not be able to accept campaign funds from anyone outside their district, or, in the case of senators, outside their state. Furthermore, regardless of office, there should be a cap on the amount that a candidate may collect and spend, thereby preventing candidates from turning the process into a mindless "American Idol" contest. The people want and deserve representation that places substance over style and principles over popularity.
This is my proposal for where we Conservatives go from here, our way ahead. The question now is "Who is with me?"
No comments:
Post a Comment