Being The Grown Ups
It is not easy being conservative these days.
For the last several decades Americans have gotten used to the idea of the government taking care of them. We've come to expect it to be there for us with subsidized loans when we're paying for our education or buying our first homes, and we've come to expect it to be there for us in our declining years with tax-funded medical care, prescription drugs and payments from Social Security. Even as you read this there is a movement among some Americans for a government-subsidized health care system for all citizens, or at least laws aimed at requiring private employers to provide a minimum of health insurance coverage.
America has, unfortunately, become a place where people don't just expect cradle-to-grave entitlements, but demand them.
As a conservative I am against this sort of big-government, nanny-state mentality. I reject the idea that the government is here to take care of us because I see the government's chief responsibility as nothing more than creating an economic and social environment where citizens are as free as possible to take care of themselves. Yet that is a hard position to have in this era where people are more worried about what their country can do for them rather than what they can do on their own.
The Democrats have recognized this and seem to have based their entire domestic policy on one simple promise made to the public (though not, obviously, in these words):
We'll make the government give you things.
Lately even so-called conservative politicians have fallen into this trap, which has caused many of our elections to dissolve into bidding wars, with each side attempting to one-up the other by promising to use their elected power to vote more goodies out of the national treasury than the other side will.
It is difficult to blame these conservatives, though as it is a hard trap to avoid. When we conservatives talk about wanting to cut back on spending for something like higher education the leftists respond by telling us that we want kids to stay stupid. If we say that we believe Medicaid spending is out of control we are told that we do not care about the poor and the sick. It is, to paraphrase the French economist Frederic Bastiat, as though because we don't think the government should raise grain the leftists think we do not want people to eat.
How can conservatives compete with this kind of rhetoric? It is not an easy thing to explain to the public that you do care about the disadvantaged, but that you think the best way to care for them is to keep as much money in America's free market as possible rather than confiscating it with taxes for redistribution through inefficient and ineffective government programs. It is an especially hard argument to make when your opponents are chanting variations of simple slogans like “The Republicans hate the poor” or “Tax cuts for the rich.”
So what do we conservatives do?
The situation reminds me of my role as a parent to my daughter. She is little, and often she wants things she cannot have. Like a drink from my soda before bed. Or some candy right before we eat supper. Or to stay up late with me watching old Alfred Hitchcock reruns. She cannot have these things because they are not good for her. Soda before bed means that she won't go to bed at all. Sweets before dinner will mean that she won't eat the food prepared for her. Staying up all night with her dad – as much as I may want her to stay up with me – will mean crankiness and petulance the next morning.
I deny her these things because I know it is good for her that I do so. Yet still she cries and puts on a show as only five-year-olds can. She tells me that I don't like her. She tells me that I never let her do anything fun, yet I persist because I am a good parent. I know better than she does, and I know that the decisions I make for her now will be better for her in the long run.
This is how conservatives must be. Rather than giving in to the chorus of demands from leftists who only want to get their hands in the “cookie jar” we must stand firm. When they childishly accuse us of hating the poor or favoring the rich we must remember that we know better.
That government entitlements encourage dependence rather than independence.
President Bush said in a recent television interview with ABC's Elizabeth Vargas that if he worried about polls he “wouldn't be doing his job.” He went on to say he believes the American people want someone who will “stand on principle.” I think he's exactly right.
With the so-called “Republican Revolution” in the mid-1990's Americans swept into office a class of conservative leaders who were supposedly dedicated to things like tax cuts, reform and limited government. Many of those conservatives are still in power today, yet it seems like much of the progress toward limited government has been stalled by the “you hate the poor” rhetoric I just described. Many of our leaders have backed down and tried to pander to voters rather than sticking to the ideals which got them voted into office.
That is a mistake, and one of the big reasons why so many Americans are disillusioned with current GOP leadership. The left would have us believe that Americans are turning to their way of thinking, but that's wrong. Americans are frustrated with leaders that haven't acted like the conservatives they elected.
We conservatives must be the “grown-ups.” Let the left thrash about and accuse us of hating whatever demographic they're championing at the moment. We know what is right.
Now we just need to do it.
This column originally appeared in the March 2006 edition of The Dakota Beacon. If you're not a subscriber, you should be.
For the last several decades Americans have gotten used to the idea of the government taking care of them. We've come to expect it to be there for us with subsidized loans when we're paying for our education or buying our first homes, and we've come to expect it to be there for us in our declining years with tax-funded medical care, prescription drugs and payments from Social Security. Even as you read this there is a movement among some Americans for a government-subsidized health care system for all citizens, or at least laws aimed at requiring private employers to provide a minimum of health insurance coverage.
America has, unfortunately, become a place where people don't just expect cradle-to-grave entitlements, but demand them.
As a conservative I am against this sort of big-government, nanny-state mentality. I reject the idea that the government is here to take care of us because I see the government's chief responsibility as nothing more than creating an economic and social environment where citizens are as free as possible to take care of themselves. Yet that is a hard position to have in this era where people are more worried about what their country can do for them rather than what they can do on their own.
The Democrats have recognized this and seem to have based their entire domestic policy on one simple promise made to the public (though not, obviously, in these words):
We'll make the government give you things.
Lately even so-called conservative politicians have fallen into this trap, which has caused many of our elections to dissolve into bidding wars, with each side attempting to one-up the other by promising to use their elected power to vote more goodies out of the national treasury than the other side will.
It is difficult to blame these conservatives, though as it is a hard trap to avoid. When we conservatives talk about wanting to cut back on spending for something like higher education the leftists respond by telling us that we want kids to stay stupid. If we say that we believe Medicaid spending is out of control we are told that we do not care about the poor and the sick. It is, to paraphrase the French economist Frederic Bastiat, as though because we don't think the government should raise grain the leftists think we do not want people to eat.
How can conservatives compete with this kind of rhetoric? It is not an easy thing to explain to the public that you do care about the disadvantaged, but that you think the best way to care for them is to keep as much money in America's free market as possible rather than confiscating it with taxes for redistribution through inefficient and ineffective government programs. It is an especially hard argument to make when your opponents are chanting variations of simple slogans like “The Republicans hate the poor” or “Tax cuts for the rich.”
So what do we conservatives do?
The situation reminds me of my role as a parent to my daughter. She is little, and often she wants things she cannot have. Like a drink from my soda before bed. Or some candy right before we eat supper. Or to stay up late with me watching old Alfred Hitchcock reruns. She cannot have these things because they are not good for her. Soda before bed means that she won't go to bed at all. Sweets before dinner will mean that she won't eat the food prepared for her. Staying up all night with her dad – as much as I may want her to stay up with me – will mean crankiness and petulance the next morning.
I deny her these things because I know it is good for her that I do so. Yet still she cries and puts on a show as only five-year-olds can. She tells me that I don't like her. She tells me that I never let her do anything fun, yet I persist because I am a good parent. I know better than she does, and I know that the decisions I make for her now will be better for her in the long run.
This is how conservatives must be. Rather than giving in to the chorus of demands from leftists who only want to get their hands in the “cookie jar” we must stand firm. When they childishly accuse us of hating the poor or favoring the rich we must remember that we know better.
That government entitlements encourage dependence rather than independence.
President Bush said in a recent television interview with ABC's Elizabeth Vargas that if he worried about polls he “wouldn't be doing his job.” He went on to say he believes the American people want someone who will “stand on principle.” I think he's exactly right.
With the so-called “Republican Revolution” in the mid-1990's Americans swept into office a class of conservative leaders who were supposedly dedicated to things like tax cuts, reform and limited government. Many of those conservatives are still in power today, yet it seems like much of the progress toward limited government has been stalled by the “you hate the poor” rhetoric I just described. Many of our leaders have backed down and tried to pander to voters rather than sticking to the ideals which got them voted into office.
That is a mistake, and one of the big reasons why so many Americans are disillusioned with current GOP leadership. The left would have us believe that Americans are turning to their way of thinking, but that's wrong. Americans are frustrated with leaders that haven't acted like the conservatives they elected.
We conservatives must be the “grown-ups.” Let the left thrash about and accuse us of hating whatever demographic they're championing at the moment. We know what is right.
Now we just need to do it.
This column originally appeared in the March 2006 edition of The Dakota Beacon. If you're not a subscriber, you should be.
. The criticism was over your smarmy self-congratulation over those deeds and intentions. That public "patting yourself on the back" I referred to.
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