|
|
|
Jewish World Review May 2, 2010/ 18 Iyar 5770 Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I'd like to have a nickel for every football team who lost a game they were winning because they switched to a "prevent defense," at the end. There is a huge difference between playing to win and playing not to lose. Too bad the Republican Party can't make the distinction.
2010 is looking like a wipeout for Democrats — one completely of their own making. Four years of a Democratically-controlled Congress, coupled with two years of the most radically leftist administration in the history of the republic have scared the hell out of Americans who now know what unbridled progressivism looks like. That many predicted the level of arrogance and contempt progressives would inflict on the country were they elected was of little consequence. Too many Americans who voted in 2008 never lived through the Carter years, and unfortunate as it is, some people never believe anything until they experience it first-hand.
Now they have, and one would think that the general level of revulsion — despite every effort by the media and Democrats to underplay it — would galvanize a Republican party which had been left for dead as recently as two years ago. One would think now is precisely the time to present the American public with game-winning, principled positions on issues. One would think this is a grand opportunity for Republicans to play to win — big.
One would be wrong. By every indication, Republicans prefer "prevent defense." They prefer playing not to lose.
Such a strategy is beyond Republicans' traditional spinelessness. It is the unprincipled cynicism of a party whose "core values" can be reduced to "vote for us because we suck less than Democrats." That may get them through 2010, but it's no strategy for long-term health. Once again, here's some thoughts from an American sick and tired of being forced to choose between really bad and stunningly awful:
— Financial reform. First and foremost, a take-no-prisoners PR campaign with one objective: to inform the American public that Democrats, not Republicans, are the party of crony-capitalist, anti-competition, Wall Street thieves. It's on the public record that more than two-thirds of all campaign donations from Wall Street went to Democrats. It's on the public record that Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankenfeld, is for the Democrats' version of financial "reform," despite the "s**t" he got from Democrat potty mouth Carl Levin. Why is that? Because Democrats can be counted on to protect the status quo even as they feign populist outrage. Goldman employees ponied up a million bucks for Barack Obama's election campaign. Any questions?
Shamefully, Republicans have just abandoned their filibuster of this bill. Economics is a tough sell for any politician because the public doesn't understand the intricacies of most financial maneuvers. Here's reform Republicans can sell that everyone can understand: those who wish to take risks must have some skin in the game. That goes for every exotic derivative being peddled on Wall Street to every mortgage being peddled on Main Street. No one gets to place a "bet" with little or nothing at stake — period.
— Health care. A certified no-brainer. 58% of Americans hate this compendium of bribes, back-room deals and, as we're learning after the fact, budget-busting costs. Repeal then reform. Anything less is putting lipstick on a pig.
— Illegal immigration. For every sob-story, illegal immigrant Democrats present as "evidence" that we must legalize millions of law-breakers, present two legal immigrants, (preferably Hispanic, since Democrats are framing this a a racial issue) who are as fed up with the mayhem as 60% of the electorate is. Democrats are threatening to sue Arizona? Republicans should have already filed lawsuits against sanctuary cities, a policy which, unlike the Arizona statue, is unquestionably in defiance of federal immigration law. Put Democrats on the defensive and watch which side the American electorate flocks to. Hint: it won't be the side which is calling anyone who is against open borders a racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant bigot. If your party can't make the argument that America is for Americans and legal immigrants, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
— Government spending. Time for some massive atonement along with unvarnished truth. The atonement part: we were power-besotted morons who tried to buy Americans with tax-and-spend liberalism being sold as "compassionate conservatism." The unvarnished truth: cutting government spending will require tough and often unpopular choices, but the alternative — a bankrupt nation — is unacceptable.
Included in that truth should be the idea that reforming massive entitlement programs must have some element of privatization included in it. Democrats prefer to treat Americans like helpless children incapable of planning their own retirement or setting aside money for medical expenses, even though these entitlement programs have unfunded liabilities totaling trillions of dollars. No doubt some Americans are lazy and/or inept — which is what makes most of them hard-core Democrats to begin with. Try treating the rest of America like adults for a change. The bet here is they can take the truth, even if it hurts a first. Unlike greedy public sector unions and their Democrat enablers, millions of Tea Partiers — and there are millions, despite the media "disinterest" — haven't taken to the streets demanding more spending and higher taxes. These people are well aware it's time for hard choices. Once again, like immigration and health care, if Republicans can't recognize which side the American majority is on, they're comatose.
— Energy. Knee-cap cap and trade. Make it crystal clear to Americans that a Republican Congress will not be blackmailed by a fascist-like Environmental Protection Agency which has threatened to regulate virtually everything energy-related if Congress refuses to pass that odious bill. This is still a democratic republic, and it's long past time these enviro-jackboots got their heads smacked. America needs a Manhattan Project-style commitment to domestic energy production focusing on nuclear, coal and oil first, along with any genuinely promising alternative energy source. Hint number two: using food sources for fuel is utterly moronic — almost as moronic as spending billion of dollars on alternative energy sources which will still require traditional sources as back-ups.
— The media. Fox News has been first among cable news networks one hundred months in a row, and the Wall Street Journal is one of a handful of newspapers in the country with rising circulation — even as leftist networks, cable shows and newspapers are tanking all across the country. If Republicans can't get their message out, then they're not trying hard enough — or they have no real message. A simple equation: treat the leftist-leaining media with the exact same level of respect with which they treat you. Few things infuriate ordinary Americans more than watching Republicans try to curry favor with a Fourth Estate that voted 89% Democrat.
— International terror. Those Republicans who are incapable of running against civilian trials for terrorists, shouldn't be running at all.
— International relations. The Obama administration and a Democrat Congress is a walking, talking — and bowing — disaster. They're tossing allies under the bus, and attempting to curry favor with some of the worst actors on the planet. Selling out Poland and Czechoslovakia by rescinding the missile shield, floundering with "community relations" in Afghanistan, reducing our nuclear arsenal while allowing Russian and China to modernize theirs, dithering on Iran, and apologizing for America all over the world is inept at best, disgraceful at worst. Yet the treatment of Israel is the bottom of the barrel, one for which that country is already paying consequences: the Syrians have allegedly armed Hezbollah in Lebanon with Scud missiles. If Republicans can't make a case that these and other pie-in-the-sky foreign policy decisions are colossal blunders, they're impotent.
Americans are starved for principled politicians who can espouse solid, traditional values. In a previous column I said, Republicans have exactly two elections to get it right. I've changed my mind. If they blow 2010, it's Tea Time.
Playing not to lose doesn't get it for one simple reason: the stakes are enormous. America is either going to lead the world out its current messes, or it's going to be the leader in a race to the bottom. Now is exactly the time to run up the score, not sit on the ball hoping to eke out a "respectable" victory in November.
Get it right — literally and figuratively — or get the hell out of the way.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
