There’s a not-so-secret ingredient to everything we argue for on this website when it comes to the need for a modernized and revitalized Republican Party, as well as ethical and reform minded political leadership. The secret is that honesty works.
If Republican candidates for state and federal office would, as a group, campaign on just the fiscal facts alone, the media, despite their left-wing bias, would be forced to cover such a compelling message. Telling the truth would have the best possible impact on the national debate and the public would respond in our favor.
On Monday I wrote about Sheila Weinberg’s Illinois website truthinaccounting.org. If you haven’t visited her national website, truthin08.com, they should ASAP. Then they should send the link to their friends, put it in their web browser favorites, and should visit the site often so they can learn what Sheila Weinberg and her colleagues are saying.
Weinberg’s opening words in the video that pops up on the website are,
“The federal government is $50 trillion dollars in the hole, and they have no idea where they’re going to come up with the money for that.”
If you think Barack Obama knows where to find $50 trillion dollars, well, you probably fit into the category the late Bill Buckley once described by saying “there isn’t much to say to someone who believes the moon is made of green cheese.”
“We have been diagnosed with fiscal cancer,” is how David Walker, former Comptroller of the United States puts it. Weinberg’s website also quotes Cicero: “Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?”
Here are a few questions I have: Why won’t Republicans in the U.S. Congress grab onto this issue? Why won’t Illinois General Assembly Republicans do likewise for Illinois’ fiscal mess?
We can even start smaller. Why won’t at least a handful of men and women who have been elected to the state legislature or the U.S. Congress from Illinois rally as a group and start dealing with this?
To paraphrase a recent line from syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, elected Republicans should think reality is something that really exists and has to be dealt with. Democrats should be the Party of the Brave New World where highly paid symbolic analysts construct reality by manipulating statistics Ralph Martire style.
Implicit in this is the fact that we cannot continue to spend-spend tax-tax as we do now. Writer and psychologist Terry Paulson put it this way:
“Too many Americans have a need for a 12-step program to help break their addiction to government assistance. Unfortunately, some Americans don’t even realize that Democrats are selling a dangerous addiction that further undermines personal responsibility and freedom while creating more government dependence and out-of-control spending.”
Fortunately, Republican candidate for president John McCain is telling at least part of the story:
“Congress and this administration have failed to meet their responsibilities…. Government has grown by 60 percent in the last eight years. That is simply inexcusable.”
This week, CNSNews editor-in-chief Terence Jeffrey asked “how big can government get?”
“Much attention has been paid in recent months to the mortgage crisis and the difficulty many Americans face because they bought or built a home they cannot afford.
But Americans must soon face a greater crisis: We have a built a government we cannot afford.”
When Republican candidates and office holders start using that kind of language and back it up with a credible plan for action, we’ll stop having to read articles like “GOP is Losing Ground” by respected political analyst Charlie Cook.
If Republican candidates, state legislators, or members of Congress don’t believe that Americans will support a call for returning to limited government and fiscal responsibility then they need to admit it and switch parties. Honesty is still the best policy.
