Occasionally I have arguments with my liberal friends about which party was responsible for what actions throughout history. Some liberals think, for instance, that it was always the Democrats who battled for civil rights and against Jim Crow. Yet, for periods of our history, Republicans were far more the friends of blacks and the party that fought to achieve real freedom.
Some seem to think that political parties are fixed entities. I’ll hear people say: “Your party is corrupt” or “Our party fights for freedoms.” At any given time, they may be accurate. Over the long haul, however, the people who make up each party change, and the actions and nature of each party alter.
Republicans advertised themselves as the party of lean government and low spending. Yet, too often, Republicans were anything but. What will the Republicans of 2008 and beyond be?
One reason Congress now has even lower approval numbers than in 2006 is the failure of Democrats to make good on their vow to clean up the earmark process. A “moratorium” on earmarks has been quietly set aside; and the Congressional Research Service has been directed by Congressional leaders to no longer respond to requests from members on the size, number or background of earmarks. “Democrats claim the earmarks will now be transparent, but they’re taking away the very data that lets us know what’s really happening,” says South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. Democratic earmark reform, concludes Mr. Coburn, “not only failed to drain the swamp, but gave the alligators new rights.”
Mr. Coburn’s main point on earmarks is that senators must choose between a culture of parochialism and a culture that puts the national interest first. He stipulates that few members are corrupt, and that most go with the flow. He has even offered to release his holds on earmarks — if their sponsors will propose reducing federal spending elsewhere, so “we aren’t just dumping more debt on our kids.”
They may not like it, but Mr. Coburn is showing Republicans how the GOP can return to its small government roots. Consider Ronald Reagan, who in 1987 vetoed a highway bill because it had a mere 121 earmarks in it.
Reagan quoted a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1796, warning that allowing Congress to spend federal money for local projects would set off “a scene of scramble among the members (for) who can get the most money wasted in their State, and they will always get most who are meanest.” Reagan didn’t think that represented good government or good politics. Republicans today should heed his warning.
Sometimes people decide to vote for candidates of another party because the voter himself has new views. Sometimes, however, the voter switches because the party no longer practices the principles they purport to hold.
Time will tell what the Republicans of the future choose to be.
