Doing Too Much and Too Little
Gallup sends out a helpful warning:
The Republicans' lead in the congressional generic ballot over the past month may be due as much to voters' rejecting the Democrats as embracing the Republicans. Among voters backing Republican candidates, 44% say their preference is "more a vote against the Democratic candidate," while 48% say it is "more a vote for the Republican candidate."
How to earn the support of that 44%? It's about more, I think, than simply flogging incumbent Democrats for pushing through the wrong policies and the wrong agenda. It's about more than the arrogance of power. The arrogance of the powerful comes in two flavors -- a willingness to rule in disregard of considered popular opinion, yes, but also an inclination not to lift a finger if the fancy to do so doesn't strike. In addition to doing what they shouldn't, bad incumbents don't do what they should.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, who can't vote on the final passage of any bill, may not provide the best example of this bad-government double-whammy, but the new profile of her primary challenger (that's right -- there is one) in CQ Politics includes a passage that helps make the point:
The anti-incumbency mood swirling around districts across the country doesn’t seem to have reached D.C.’s streets. Still, Sloan keeps trying. In fact, he wears the fact that he’s only the second candidate ever to challenge Norton in a Democratic primary as a badge of courage. “I meet people on the street, and they say, ‘Oh, I love Eleanor. She’s doing a great job.’ And I’ll ask them what she’s done, and I’ll get blank stares,” he says.
Republicans shouldn't leave that line of attack to Democrats willing to take on their own incumbents -- certainly not out of any fear that you can't advocate a proactive Congress and oppose big government at the same time. I'm reminded again of Lippmann's quip: "It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity which keeps Mr. Coolidge occupied constantly." But instead of "neutralizing and thwarting political activity wherever there are signs of life," as Lippmann put it, for the next decade, the task before Republicans is to undo the activity of much of the past decade while, at the same time, actively recreating a new approach to our persistent challenges. I know this is easier said than done, but it had better be said now. Those incumbent Dems deserve to go not simply for what they've accomplished, but for what they haven't.
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
That should be "too" much, James. Don't be embarrassed. I did an update of the Gadsden flag showing a serpent coiled around a leg with fangs dug into the shin and added words "to late." It hung on my wall for two weeks before I noticed the error. Damn Spellczech, again.
May '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Even if we grant that our present good fortune is merely because voters hate us slightly less, a conservative silver lining still exists. That is, suppose America has interpreted the take-home message of the last four years to be: both parties are corrupt and incompetent; or put another way, government is by nature corrupt and incompetent. Is this not progress?
In such an environment, the conservative message of the need to undo, to dismantle, might be appealing.
Edited on Sep 5, 2010 at 6:38amJun '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Scott Reusser: "In such an environment, the conservative message of the need to undo, to dismantle, might be appealing."
I don't care what the message is as long as we take back at least the House. The second step will be the more difficult. Rank and file conservatives must take back the Republican party. The idea of genuine citizen legislators as opposed to professional politicians has great resonance for me.
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Indeed. Fact: Obama's presidency has led to involuntary rationing -- of the letter o. After consulting with a panel of experts, the determination was made that 'Bamboozled' could afford to part with an o. Thanks to your keen sense of justice, 'Too' has been made whole.
Edited on Sep 5, 2010 at 8:30amJul '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Scott Reusser:
In such an environment, the conservative message of the need to undo, to dismantle, might be appealing. · Sep 5 at 6:35am
Edited on Sep 05 at 06:38 am
There you are again, with sweet reason. My message might be a tidge more...militant:
"The DC elite are a plague upon the land! Let us gather together and march hence and expel their scabrous carcasses from the halls of power. Let us slaughter their cattle, burn their crops and tear down, stone by stone, their habitations and then revel in the lamentations of their women and children!"
(RSVP. Kindly bring your own tar and feathers. And no littering, please - we're conservatives.)
Jul '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Silent Cal is looking better and better as time goes on.
Jul '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Yeah. Hard to picture Cal fist-bumping and boogying down with Beyonce.
Or riding a sissy bike in mom jeans.
Aug '10
Re: Doing Too Much and Too Little
Scott Reusser: Even if we grant that our present good fortune is merely because voters hate us slightly less, a conservative silver lining still exists. That is, suppose America has interpreted the take-home message of the last four years to be: both parties are corrupt and incompetent; or put another way, government is by nature corrupt and incompetent. Is this not progress?
In such an environment, the conservative message of the need to undo, to dismantle, might be appealing.
I sure hope you're right. But there's another reaction that can happen when folks realize that government is by nature corrupt and incompetent: instead of taming Leviathan, they might decide to cut as many deals with Leviathan as possible to get their share of Leviathan's spoils.
I've met lots of folks whose attitude towards the government funding ridiculous projects X, Y, and Z isn't to cut funding to those programs, but instead to complain, "If the government funds X, Y, and Z, why can't it fund me?"
Edited on Sep 5, 2010 at 7:24pm