Gambling Away the Republican Future?
There have recently been positive developments in the Republican Party’s fortunes. Polls show increased support for conservatism and the GOP, conservatives are actively protesting for their beliefs, and Congress is starting to take note. Republicans have a real chance in 2010 — if they can form a cohesive conservative coalition.
The Republican Party was once the party of limited government and personal responsibility. Unfortunately, the GOP has been pushing libertarian-minded conservatives from the party for some time. 2008 was the worst year ever for the traditional GOP coalition. The party establishment was openly hostile to Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) presidential run and the big government social conservative wing of the party even called for a plank in the party platform advocating federal internet censorship to stop adults from playing online poker. In essence, the party told poker players, internet freedom supporters, and limited government conservatives that they are no longer welcome in the GOP.
Poker players and freedom lovers submitted hundreds of comments to the GOP Platform Committee asking them to support internet freedom. As the Poker Players Alliance has over one million members, this was something to be taken seriously. The drafters of the platform got the message. They kept online poker prohibition language out of the platform, stating a desire not to lose these voters in what was shaping up to be a very difficult election year. Unfortunately, the full committee chose to restore it. Sadly, rather than making conciliatory comments to heal the rift, Family Research Council Vice President Tom McClusky instead further taunted America’s poker players with statements like, “the Pokers Players Alliance showed their hand well too early,” and “the Republican Platform Committee should be proud that they have stood up for the law and families.” Focus on the Family proudly highlights these statements on its site to this day.
Reaction to the poker plank was quick. Reason magazine took the party to task for advocating big government in their platform, and Sen. John McCain received tens of thousands of letters and phone calls in protest. Many protests were, as predicted, delivered via the voting booth on Election Day, and 2008 was a year where the GOP could not spare any votes.
One wonders why this rather small but loud minority of social conservatives has this knee-jerk reaction against poker in the first place. Maybe it’s an anachronistic holdover from the Temperance Movement of the early 1900s, when too many social conservatives unfortunately started using the power of the federal government to achieve conservative goals. This is a very dangerous thing, as a government powerful enough to give us everything we want is powerful enough to take everything we have.
Rather than wanting a government big and powerful enough to promote traditional values USING big government, perhaps conservatives ought to worry more about protecting traditional values FROM big government. Many conservatives agree. Former House Majority Leader Richard Armey, George Will, Grover Norquist, Walter Williams, and others strongly oppose what Will has termed “Prohibition II.” As President Reagan famously said, “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”