Mr. Greenspan, who calls himself a “lifelong libertarian Republican,” writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb “out-of-control” spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush’s failure to do so “was a major mistake.” Republicans in Congress, he writes, “swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.”
Of course what isn’t said is that the Democrats would have been much worse on spending and the economy. However people that vote Republican don’t do so because they like that elephant logo. They do it because they expect elected leaders to spend our money wisely.
Of course the solution isn’t to elect Democrats that start out on Ted Steven’s level and get worse. The solution is to get new Conservative Republican leadership elected. I think the responsible voters are tired of having their choices between bad and worse. The politics of personal destruction such as the Scooter Libby political show trial has made it worse to get qualified people to run for office. Another thing that probably deters good people is the non-stop fund raising that goes on. If you’re not a slimeball with his hand out to every lobbyist all the time (Kent Conrad) then you don’t have a chance to run for office.
A long time ago I was a big believer in term limits. In fact I still am and only quit talking about them when the Supreme Court made state imposed term limits impossible. (In another of a long string of Supreme Court rulings that increase the power of the government at the expense of the people). Well the need for term limits is stronger than ever but I don’t see how we’re going to ram that through Congress. Any ideas?