Indeed, nobody here.
Sam Tanenhaus, the gifted writer that he is, says that we are too “revanchist” and we need need to compromise more. He also states that big government is here to stay. My simplified take on his essay. I don’t doubt that compromise is essential to our political process, but I reject his notion that we can never reduce the size of government again. What is the point of trying to conserve our traditions, our culture, and our Constitution if we don’t ever to try to put policies into effect which support them? I don’t see the lack of compromise as our main problem, it’s the abandonment of our principles and our inability to articulate these beliefs to the American public in a persuasive way. To help conservatism achieve political success, I think we need to keep our platform simple and concentrate on just a few things:
1. Reducing the size of the Federal government — returning more of its current functions to the state, local authorities, and, more importantly, to the individual. Think the 10th Amendment. More government means less personal freedom.
2. Reducing the level of taxation — Making progress on item 1 will permit progress on item 2. More taxation means less business and personal money and less freedom.
3. Strong defense and border security — While we attempt to return some of the functions of Federal government to local governance, we recognize the need for a strong and vibrant military. We also believe that border security, is an essential role of the Federal Government. The protection of the U.S. is the number one purpose of the Federal Government.
So, if we focus on things essential to our core principles and we use the new media effectively, we will achieve electoral success again in the near future. Compromise is essential in the political process, but the belief that we can never achieve a smaller and more Constitutionally-compliant Federal Government is giving up the battle before even fighting it. We have to be more intelligent while pursuing change in the political process and recognize some of the practical limitations that therein exist, but we don’t have to surrender to it.