Accountability goes both ways
I am not going to sum up the amazing success of the midterm elections or overrate their value (even though that is hard to do). Bush cannot do whatever he wants, for he does not have a 60-seat Senate. However, the conventional wisdom that Bush will be held responsible if washing machines start falling out of the sky is not true either. The Clinton administration in 2000 did not get credit for the economy, so the conventional wisdom that voters only look at the guy in the White House is not true. Democrats can still attack the Bush agenda, but now it will attract more attention and call them to account for their policies and values.
The expected election of Nancy Pelosi symbolizes the death of the Clinton era (not the New Democrats) and the return to radical liberalism. Republicans now control the initiative and can force the Democrats to rant on issues of their choosing.
The elitism and contempt the Left coast holds for the inlands of America will be exposed by the undisciplined self-righteous hate they promote. Just read The New York Times and you will see the day-dreaming world the radical Left lives in. At one time they had complete control over American political institutions, now they are losing their monopoly on the subject and tone of the media. One will see the watered-down resentful tone the Left coast has for the rest of us mortals.
The two issues of importance will be the repeal of the tax cuts and the Bush Doctrine (I love the term doctrine and Bush written together) of preemption. The Bush tax cut represents a supply-side economic bias. Conservatives believe that the “more productive aspects of society” should be allowed to use their resources to greater degrees than society currently allows. If we had a better Security and Exchange agency then that argument would make perfect sense. However, right now we do not, so I personally would rather be screwed by the private sector than the public sector. The doctrine of preemption depends on whether one believes that rational actors govern rogue nations.
The truth or fallacy of those assumptions are a subject that deserve great and prolonged debate. There is one minor subject that will have great tactical and moral meaning. The two issues that measure the values of the country are guns and abortion. Guns are a symbol of individualism, and how Germanic our society is. Thomas Jefferson believed that German tribes were one of the origins of Western democracy. Jefferson confused personal freedom with political freedom.
Since the U.S. Constitution was strongly influenced by John Locke, then the terms “state of nature” and “state of war” apply here. Guns mean that individual citizens will be able to secure their ability to remain in the state of nature. Thieves and murderers would have the ability, at will, to bring people into the state of war. Gun owners believe that individuals should have the ability, at will, to remain in the state of nature. Our Germanic freedom should be protected with individual force.
If the state of Texas wants to personally guarantee, by threat of civil action, my bodily safety and property, then I will surrender my firearms. You can tell the gun debate is influenced by liberals because the only legitimate reason mainly given for gun ownership is hunters, not self-protection.
The other issue, abortion, will have a radical change in the next Congress. Abortion represents the old value clash between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives say that man is what he is and we should proceed with caution when changing the way man interacts with man.
Liberals want to engage in social engineering, which abortion represents. It is a woman’s body and her choice, a hard argument to get around, but one must admit that something more than an amoeba dies. Nevertheless, partial-birth abortion will be on the agenda next year. If the Left defends this practice next year then the term “radical” will no longer apply to the Right. The propagandist media has had a field day blurring the lines between radical anti-abortionists who use violence and more mainstream anti-abortionists. If the Left allows partial-birth abortion to become illegal then the right of abortion will no longer be the same type of right but an ice-cream cone.
Either way Bush wins.
More importantly Bush threw out a very large bone to his base. The great problem for Republicans in the next 20 years is finding a way to appease their base without looking like they are appeasing their base. The cultural Right is too publicly unattractive at this or possibly any time for Republicans to reach out to other groups. But Republicans are nothing without them. Republicans must find issues that speak to their base in a way no one else knows or cares about. Issues like guns and abortion are the low-key answers.
