specter and everything else that is wrong with the gop

As I'm sure most of you have heard, my Senator from the state of Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, has decided to defect from the Republican Party.  Specter has stated that the reason for leaving was because the Republican Party has moved too far right while he has remained true to his moderate record.  That's some of the biggest bullshit I've heard in a long time.  First, Specter's move is a purely political one.  He's a lifetime politician, the scourge of the country.  He realized that Pat Toomey, who unsuccessfully ran for Specter's seat in the 2004 Republican primary, was leading him by 21 points in polls among likely Republican voters in 2010, and that he wasn't going to be renominated as the Republican candidate for Senate in the next election cycle.  He then made a deal with Democrats that he would caucus with them as long as they didn't put up a Democratic challenger in 2010.  Some ideological struggle indeed.  

Although this looks like a major defeat for the GOP, and it is in many respects, I think this could be a turning point for the party if they use this defection to begin moving in a better direction.  Many pundits are claiming that this is a huge loss because Democrats will now have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.  In reality, Specter was already going to vote with the Democrats on many issues, so his switching party affiliations really didn't get them any more votes.  The real test of whether the Democrats can prevent a filibuster will come from moderate Democrats in traditionally Republican states like Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.  Their votes on issues like cap-and-trade will determine whether it will become law because Specter was already going to vote with the Democrats.

Specter claimed that the Republican party has been moving too far right for his tastes.  Doubtful.  Republicans have abandoned the principles upon which the Reagan revolution was founded: belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty. First, when it comes to personal freedom as well as personal responsibility issues,  Republicans have betrayed their roots of classical liberal ideology.  In our current political environment, the question always seems to be, "How can the federal government fix the problem?"  If this is the question that is being debated in Washington, then Republicans are always going to lose.  Democrats are the party of government run solutions, and instead of offering a watered-down democratic solution, the Republican party needs to articulate free market and private solutions to the issues facing us as a nation.  

More than anyone, former President Bush is the most to blame for this destruction in fundamental ideology.  Far too often he caved to political pressures and rather than attempting to fundamentally reform government expenditures.  He expanded the size of government through programs like Medicare Reform, No Child Left Behind, and other federal economic regulation.  During Bush's term in office, the  Federal Registry, which contains the rules and laws for federal regulation of all types of industries, grew from 64,438 new pages in 2001 to 78,090 in new pages in 2007, a record amount of regulation. Economically significant regulations, defined as regulations which cost more than $100 million a year, increased by 70%.  Spending on regulation increased by 62% from $26.4 billion to $42.7 billion.  Now that's what I call a limited government voting record.

Not to mention a relatively new wing of the Republican party, the Christian Conservative, has come to dominate the GOP agenda.  Southern Republicans, who gain most of their political support from deeply religious conservatives, has caused the party to move away from a belief in limited government and personal freedom.  Instead of supporting individual rights, the GOP has demonized ethnic, racial and political minorities, believing that supporting the Christian conservative agenda is more important than protecting individual rights.  This has caused groups like gays, hispanics, african americans and jews to feel alienated from the party, preventing the GOP from winning even small minority support.  Until the GOP fundamentally restructures their view of how the government should be run, and what the appropriate role of the government should be, they will continue to lose support nationwide.

So what should the GOP do?  I am glad you asked.  Below are 5 points I believe would fundamentally overhaul the party and could make them into a majority party once again.  Not to  mention it will begin moving America back in the direction of freedom and prosperity.

1. Explain why government is not the solution.
   Government spending is wasteful.  Everyone knows it.  We can't let the the government pick economic winners and losers in America because it is only going to lead to entrenched bureaucracies with no objective other than attempting to force the government to continue giving them funding.  The deficits we are running are unsustainable, will lead to rampant inflation, and will destroy the financial system beyond repair.
   
   
2. Begin offering free market solutions to today's economic problems.
   Republicans are not articulating why Obama's policies are going to bankrupt America in the long term.  They need to stress that free market solutions are inherently more economically efficient than government spending programs, and that prosperity will be maximized, especially in the poorest classes, when government allows entrepreneurs to create new opportunities.  This sounds like a win-win, but they must also stress that free market solutions means allowing bad investments to fail.  In other words, no more bailouts for failing companies like the domestic auto industry.  Failures of these companies, although painful in the short term, create tremendous opportunities for new economic growth in the long term as new suppliers will emerge to meet the newly found surplus in demand created by the fall in supply.
   
   
3. Support individual rights and liberties.
   The federal government should have no role in deciding who should be allowed to get married, and Republicans need to recommit themselves to protecting individual liberties all all costs.  Rights belong to individuals, not groups, and that is the message they should stress.  By strengthening individual rights, they can meet two important goals: preventing future government encroachment of personal freedoms (including economic freedoms), and opening up the party to traditionally democratic voters like gays, pro-choice moderate women, and other minority groups who believe strongly in personal rights.  
   
   
4. Stress the importance of the citizen politician.
   Now this might just be a pipe dream of mine, but I think it could be a winning issue for Republicans.  They should push for term limits in both houses of Congress.  My recommendation would be you can be re-elected into the house three times (four terms totaling eight years), and as many times as you wished in the Senate, but you cannot run for re-election in the term directly after you served.  By rededicating themselves to the idea of citizen politicians, a notion strongly supported by the founding fathers, we can eliminate lifetime politicians, thereby limiting the control of special interests.  If politicians are not constantly running for re-election, there is no incentive for them to constantly raise money, greatly reducing the influence of special interest groups.  Unfortunately this is not going to happen.  Too many Republicans themselves are career politicians to support such a matter. 
   
   
5. Explain that Americans are not getting what they are paying for.
   The U.S. budget this year is in the trillions of dollars.  Many Americans are paying between 30-60% of the income in taxes of some kind, be it federal income tax, state income tax, local wage taxes, state sales taxes, etc.  In some cases, that is the equivalent of working Monday through Friday and only getting paid for working Monday and Tuesday.  And for what?  With the massive government spending, Very few people see any concrete benefits that come anywhere near the tremendous amount they put into the system.  These high tax rates destroy the incentive to work hard, not to mention they are fundamentally unfair.  Republicans should emphasize that when a government grows to the size ours has currently achieved, it is unable to effectively govern in an efficient way.  We essentially work half the time to support ourselves, and half the time to support the government.

Now I don't kid myself into thinking this is the path the GOP will follow.  Unfortunately I think they are in too deep at this point, and it is going to take a major economic collapse (and if you think the current recession is bad just wait until will have major negative economic growth coupled with skyrocketing inflation from unfunded debt - 2008-09 will look like rosy economic times) to overhaul the system.  Hopefully I'm wrong.  We are going down a path that will bankrupt the country.  Additionally we are taking away both economic and personal freedoms in the name of protecting the common good.  One of my favorite quotes is from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who in his dissenting opinion in Olmstead v. United States stated, "Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."