DrewM at Ace of Spades has a thoughtful post that posits a “let it burn” philosophy: i.e., since a majority of Americans, consisting of an unholy alliance of the ideologically fanatical, the congenitally ignorant and the merely greedy, now seem to be fully behind the big government/big spending model, conservatives should stop supporting Republicans who think that we can stop the socialist steamroller with itty-bitty compromises that utterly fail to address the economic threat of Democrat policies – and the moral threat that underlies those policies – stick to our guns and let the fiscal cliff happen.
Some Republican politicians are now taking a somewhat different tack: let’s compromise with the Democrats on tax hikes because then they’ll own them, and own the resulting economic recession, too. My response to this is: Really? Are you so sure the Democrats will get the blame? And how will people know to blame the Democrats? Are the mainstream media outlets all of a sudden going to develop a passionate desire to tell the unvarnished truth? And will it, in fact, be true that the Democrats deserve all the blame if Republicans cave? My view is if Republicans give in on taxes, in return for a promise to cut spending somewhere down the road, then they (a) will at least be seen as partly culpable for the ensuing acceleration of economic decline by voters at large, (b) will alienate the conservative base for not sticking to principle, and (c) will be seen by everybody and his brother as complete suckers for being taken in, once again, by empty Democrat promises of budgetary and entitlements reform that’s supposed to occur at some vague future date scheduled to coincide more or less with the Second Coming.
The Republican Party is going to go the way of the Whigs if it does not grasp one very important fact upfront: the Democrats have reversed Von Clausewitz’s classic formulation and are now waging war against their own country through the means of politics.
I’d be interested in hearing readers’ thoughts on the subject.
Update: William Tucker suggests political ju-jitsu.
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Do people not remember Bush 41? The Democrats & the media gave him 100% of the blame for his signing onto taxes they supported.
ReplyDeleteClassic example.
ReplyDeleteLet it burn. Nothing the GOP does will change the mind of the masses, as the media is fully in the tank.
ReplyDeleteAlas, many of the GOP are more interested in saving their own bacon first.
The downside of the Let It Burn idea is that if you, in effect, concede then they'll use that opportunity to try to stack and/or create institutions in their favor so while the country may be broken and hobbled they'll ensure they will be the ones in charge of the rubble.
ReplyDeleteThe crash is inevitable and both parties know it. Each side is positioning itself to be able to blame the other. It doesn't matter any more who gets blamed - although it will be the Republicans - we've already gone over the cliff. We just haven't hit the canyon floor yet.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is, what can be done post impact to fix things.
Any ideas?
Deborah Leigh said...Cut federal funding for California's ludicrous high speed rail project, for starters.
ReplyDeleteCut funding for the study of a substance that is found in some toothpaste, deoderant, and hand soap (can't remember the name). John Stossel had a fellow on to talk about wasteful spending. This stuff has been studied for it's safety and effectiveness for 40 YEARS! No conclusions!
End double dipping by Congress members. One salary. Period. Regardless of position.
Reduce the pension of any Congress member who found guilty of a infraction or crime.
No solar arrayd. They just magically appeared all over Los Angeles at high schools, and Veterans hospitals.
not sticking to principle
ReplyDeleteThere is only ONE principle for these toads: re-election, re-election, re-election.
The Republicans in the House should put Obama's proposal on the floor as a bill and have a vote. They should all abstain and let it pass.
ReplyDeleteLet it then go before the Senate.
Let the Democrats get everything they want and own it.
But, of course, Cryin' John and Granny Mitch would never have the testicular fortitude to do something like this.
Therefore: Commence OPERATION: WHIG.
To me, it boils down to votes. If you can get enough votes, you have control.
ReplyDeleteHow do you get enough votes to have control? Control the media, and control the educational system. Two things the left has been working on quite successfully for the last fifty years.
What the left wants to do, is bound to fail. It's been tried and shown not to work, so it will probably take another massive failure to wake up enough people to reverse the trend in the future.
I say give'em enough rope to hang themselves.
Letting it all burn is horrible to contemplate, but I honestly don't see any other way. The left may use the opportunity to consolidate their power, as the good Colonel suggests, but they're doing that anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat said, letting it burn will do absolutely no good if the Republicans don't stand up at the same time and shout from the rooftops whose fault it actually is.
I wouldn't like to be in the Republican Party at the moment. The general tone seems to be one of dispute, rising tension, uncertainty, and disunity. Perhaps all parties have to go through such periods of instability in opposition from time to time.
ReplyDeleteThe left may use the opportunity to consolidate their power, as the good Colonel suggests, but they're doing that anyway.
ReplyDeletenot just consolidate power in current institutions but they'll create new institutions (think the semi-autonomous, quasi-government Canadian Human Rights Commission)