Wesley Pruden writes in the Washington Times: …the president’s men thought he could safely ignore his conservative base because his best friends wouldn’t have anywhere else to go. Conservatives would reckon they couldn’t even indulge the luxury of staying home on Election Day. The president [Bush the Elder] could chase voters elsewhere…. Even Bill Clinton cut the number of federal employees; George W. added 80,000 new bureaucrats just last year. Every single state recorded an increase.
That pretty much explodes the “a vote for a third party is a vote for a Democrat” defense of the Republican Party, based, as it is, on the idea that a Democrat will make things worse. It is absolutely a fact that George Bush is worse than Bill Clinton when it comes to increasing the size of government and increasing Federal power, and one tax cut based on Keynesian economic justifications doesn’t balance that. Got it, conservatives? Repeat this until it penetrates your brain: George Bush is worse than Bill Clinton. George Bush is worse than Bill Clinton. George Bush is worse than Bill Clinton.
This may seem counterintuitive, but so are many provable truths. A Republican executive combined with a Republican legislature will usually increase government more than a Democratic executive with a Republican legislature. That’s because with nothing to push back against, the legislators feel the need to prove that they’re doing something by passing new laws and creating new initiatives. It’s why Bush wants to go to Mars and the California Republicans will likely give in and raise taxes now that Schwarzenegger is in office when they fought Gray Davis on it tooth-and-nail.
Basic IQ test: when politicians pass new laws, do they tend to:
(A) increase government power
(B) decrease government power.
After all, it’s hard to run on a platform of: “well, we pretty much sat around and drank a lot of cocktails for two years. Vote for me!” It sounds a lot better to be able to say that you spent the term fighting for the children, the elderly and hard-working Americans who deserve a hand.
Pragmatists in politics are always doomed to eventual failure. Only principle will ever win in the end. What is more important to you, your principles or your party? If you believe in party uber alles, then you might as well be the Nazi that your left-liberal friends consider you. Be honest with yourself, are you truly less principled than the natural Democrats who’ve left that party for the Greens? That’s an uncomfortable thought, now, isn’t it.
Your “victory” in the last election brought you a man who is demonstrably worse than Bill Clinton. I submit that in light of this debacle, a new strategy is required.