A Cure for GOP Ennui
Bennett, William J.
A Cure for GOP Ennui by William J. Bennett I ntellectually dominant for most of the last two decades and ideologically dominant for the last two years, the GOP is the de facto majority party...
...As the defense of the citizenry is still the first responsibility of government, they should push hard for strategic missile defense...
...William J. Bennett is co-director of Empower America and an Olin fellow at the Heritage Foundation...
...Even the speaker is torn between attacking his critics and hoping to find common ground with them...
...Republicans have yet to find an adequate response to this clever tactic...
...Republicans are now the majority party on Capitol Hill and in state capitals...
...It is not simply that House Republicans have had their attention diverted toward arguing against one or another ethics charge against the speaker of the House...
...Most of what needs to happen on the culture front—in contrast to, say, defense and foreign policy issues, or monetary and tax policy—needs to happen in the sphere outside of the federal government, and often apart from local government...
...Why this profound loss of self-confidence and political aggressiveness...
...That's due in part to the fact that House Republicans have had to expend a considerable amount of their capital, both moral and political, in defending Newt Gingrich...
...The president's pedestrian and completely forgettable inaugural address reminds us that he is far from an imposing public figure...
...It was probably the most conservative ad of the presidential campaign, and it doesn't even mention the president's signature on the Defense of Marriage Act, his endorsement of the V-chip, and his support for Republican welfare legislation...
...It is that Speaker Gingrich's political liabilities have engendered in Republicans a sense of timidity, uncertainty, and an unwillingness to take on the establishment for fear of provoking its scorn, anger, and retribution...
...They should work against racial set-asides...
...It is clear to those of us who watch or work in politics that Gingrich is the object of a massive ideological effort to destroy him and discredit his party and his ideas...
...Longer jail sentences...
...Clinton hasn't just invaded conservative territory, of course...
...For one thing, Bill Clinton's continuing political success has Republicans flummoxed...
...As one might expect, these concerns are making their way into our national political debate...
...School uniforms to instill discipline...
...A Cure for GOP Ennui by William J. Bennett I ntellectually dominant for most of the last two decades and ideologically dominant for the last two years, the GOP is the de facto majority party in America...
...Consider the text of this radio ad produced during the 1996 election: "President Clinton: defending our values...
...Supporting teen curfews...
...When he talks about issues of race, for example, he reserves his greatest praise for Democrats like Charles Rangel and Eleanor Holmes Norton instead of colorblind Republicans like Ward Connerly...
...In a recent Wirthlin Poll, almost 70 percent of respondents said they thought the nation's problems were primarily moral and cultural, not political...
...And yet these days, as the 105th Congress begins its work, it is clear that the faithful are paralyzed by ennui and the party is floundering...
...In 1995, Washington rang out with excessive, unconserv-ative rhetoric about "revolution," rhetoric that smacked of arrogance and overconfidence and that cost the party and the conservative cause dearly...
...Clinton's central political insight after being visited by the devastation of the 1994 election was to embrace, with some modifications, a conservative agenda, particularly on cultural issues...
...But it is also the case that Republicans are unsure what to do now because many of the essential items on the national agenda simply cannot be effectively addressed by the House, the Senate, or the president...
...They should reintroduce the ban on partial-birth abortions, renew efforts to strengthen private, faith-based charities, and recast the education debate toward standards and excellence as well as school choice...
...Issues that have become standard fare in our political discussions—say, the corrosive effects of popular culture, the growing incivility in American life, and the breakdown of the family—were hardly spoken of in politics three decades ago...
...One could argue that we have never seen a major political figure as unprincipled and chameleon-like as the president, qualities that lead many of us to disdain his political character...
...Today," Jonathan Rauch has written, "government is increasingly beside the point...
...They should propose a comprehensive anti-drug effort, with military involvement...
...Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are becoming somewhat marginalized...
...not because government has changed but because the problems have...
...GOP senators from 43 to 55...
...The problem is that the GOP's tactical and rhetorical errors have now led the party into intellectual and moral bashfulness...
...and state legislators by over 500...
...A four-star-general drug czar...
...We should remember, too, that during the Clinton era, the number of Republicans in the House has increased from 176 to 227...
...Think of a quarterback whose main thought is not how to throw a completion, but how to avoid throwing an interception: More often than not, such a strategy results in an incomplete pass, a humiliating sack, or the very interception he dreaded...
...But just as obviously—obvious for conservatives, anyway—politics and legislation are limited in what they can do to resolve deep-seated cultural problems...
...These are encouraging political facts, and they are worth building on...
...If so, it is a sign of maturity and a recognition of reality...
...That's not just a problem for those of us who think the GOP should confidently and unapologetically oppose quotas and racial set-asides...
...There is no shortage of issues Republicans can tackle...
...Learning from your mistakes is one thing, but not if the lesson leads you to become hesitant, uncertain, and overly cautious...
...They should rein in the out-of-con-trol courts...
...Congress still has important work to do, and Republicans ought not to let Bill Clinton set the terms of the political debate...
...Three strikes and you're out...
...One hundred thousand more police...
...The death penalty for drug kingpins...
...It is a more general failure of sensibility, and it is a failing Republicans need to overcome, and soon...
...During the last two years, the president has successfully exploited tactical mistakes by Republicans (the shutdown of the federal government being chief among them) while at the same time skillfully advocating and employing "salami-slice" government— small-scale executive action intended to highlight certain popular issues and themes...
...Perhaps there is a growing sense among politicians of both parties that their work is not central to the alleviation of many of our problems...
...But to the rest of America, Newt Gingrich is the public face of the Republican party, and in one recent poll, his approval rating stood at 15 percent...
...Republicans have been told so often that they tried to do too much too fast after the triumphant 1994 elections that they have over-corrected for past errors...
...Indeed, Clinton's lasting contribution to American politics may well be the damage he has done to contemporary liberalism...
...Indeed, Republicans have had a difficult time finding an adequate way to describe conservative policy goals altogether...
...Of course, this is not a prescription for inaction or political somnambulism...
...Obviously, legislation can affect some of these issues for good or ill...
...The point is: Choose a few targets of opportunity, choose them well, pursue them in an intelligent and confident manner, and the ennui will be supplanted by purpose and good cheer...
...The sin is less one of commission than one of omission: What is missing is a focused, appealing, and philosophically coherent national agenda...
...governors from 18 to 32...
...But his easy ability to embrace issues and ideologies he once opposed and go wherever the polls and his advisers tell him to go affords the president some serious tactical advantages over his political rivals...
Vol. 2 • February 1997 • No. 21
