A memo to conservatives
By Norman Leahy | Saturday, December 31st, 2011 | Policy, PoliticsThe Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott has a bit of wisdom for conservatives of all stripes, who may find themselves a bit cranky with House Republicans:
…we conservatives have a tendency to expect instant perfection from Republicans who claim to share our agenda, but the reality is that winning one off-year election isn’t nearly enough.
In order for reform movements like the Tea Party to achieve genuine enduring change, they must win several consecutive elections, including at least one for the White House.
We can – and should – thank wee Jimmy Madison for this reality because the Constitution he more than any of the other founders fathered defuses and refracts the popular will over time to prevent momentary passions from overwhelming good sense.
It’s how we answer the question posed in the first Federalist paper by Alexander Hamilton – Madison’s most important ally in the constitutional debate that culminated in ratification – and thereby demonstrate that Americans are indeed capable of establishing and keeping “good government from reflection and choice,” instead of “accident and force.”
Conservatives of all people ought not have to be reminded of this fact.
But we often do need reminding, because as dispassionate as conservatives can appear to be (or perhaps that’s just heartlessness), we can be as hot-headed as the next guy. Some self-syled conservatives have made vein-popping bombast a part of their business model. They are convinced this is the only way of keeping it real. But if Dave Chappelle has taught us anything, keeping it real can go terribly wrong.
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.
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3 Responses to "A memo to conservatives"
I know this sounds hackneyed, but it has taken eighty years for the government to get this way. Heck, the Federal Reserve has been around for almost a century. Sometimes it takes baby steps. TEA Partiers and other conservatives need to realize that lasting change can only come through working as a political party, which will need leadership. (Even the Revolution had leaders.) Work to make the Republican Party more conservative. That’s the hard job, but that’s how you’ll get your reforms in the long run.
Well said, Norm and Fat Dave.
Reform takes time. Push too hard, and the pendulum can swing back just as quickly (and with damaging effect). This was Reagan’s genius — freezing the numerator while growing the denominator.
If you can put the Leviathan in a box, you can cage him. But that takes time, skill, and tact (along with moral resolve).
Sometimes, I become semantically bewildered what the label conservative means to a blogging author or commenter when they use the term. Sometimes the supply side economics used to hold Reagan high in economic esteem is coupled with instances that some would equate with flaming liberal positions. For example, in 1983 Reagan instituted a payroll tax on Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance. To reduce inflation and lower nominal interest rates, under the Reagan administration, the U.S. borrowed both domestically and abroad to cover the Federal budget deficits thereby raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion. At the point, this led to the U.S. moving from the world’s largest international creditor to the world’s largest debtor nation. So Shaun, when we make “conservative” folk heroes, let’s not blot out the disappointments of their administration.
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