A Good Day for Reality Based Conservatism
On the blogosphere, hopeful signs all over today.
On BigJournalism, a smart young Tea Partier offers some intelligent advice, beginning with put away the 18th century costumes and ending with this:
the apocalyptic end-of-the-republic-as-we-know-it rhetoric, while possibly true, probably makes moderates feel they are being put on and reinforces the right’s reputation for fear-mongering, and most importantly, deludes our message. The most effective communication of the conservative message today has come from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who speaks directly to an issue with matter-of-fact reasoning and a down-to-earth demeanor and without any apparent need for a green-screened lightning bolt behind him with thunderbolt sound effect cues. He will explain to an initially indignant union teacher why balancing the budget required a 1.5 percent payroll deduction and have her nodding in agreement by the end of his explanation, and will manage to do so without a long-hanging cravat and full-bottomed wig and without sounding the seven trumpets.
Perhaps even more remarkably, in National Review's Corner, Kevin Williamson goes toe-to-toe with Grover Norquist, wins the fight, and lives (thus far)to tell the tale. Responding to Grover Norquist's upbraiding of Mitch Daniels for considering a Value Added Tax, Williamson wrote as follows:
Like it or not, taxes are going up: If not today, then in the near future. Even once the deficit is under control, that debt is still going to have to be paid down, lest debt service alone overwhelm the federal budget, necessitating even more tax hikes. If Grover Norquist thinks there’s a tax-free way out of this mess that is both politically and economically realistic, he is living in a fantasy.
Americans for Tax Reform despatched a junior to argue with Williamson, to which Williamson wrote an even better riposte:
I don’t favor a VAT. But I also do not favor letting conservatives’ position[s] be defined by magical thinking — magical thinking of precisely the sort that already has destroyed the Republican party’s credibility on fiscal restraint and has undermined the conservative movement’s credibility in the process. The GOP has been listening to the likes of ATR for a generation, buying into the canard that they can do the feel-good stuff (cutting taxes) without worrying too much about the hard part (cutting spending). The results are all around you, and they are dismaying.
Williamson has grasped the key issue. Republicans can lead - or they can complain. If they want to lead, they have to deal with facts as they are, not as we'd wish them to be. Well and bravely spoken - and let's hope for more.