A Conservative Guide to Governing
A victory this fall by the Republicans would damage the ability of the Democrats to push their agenda through Congress, but it wouldn’t lead to implementation of conservative values in national government. President Obama will be in office until 2013 and will enjoy the power of the veto pen.
Those who want to see conservative ideas implemented will need to look to the states where a solid Republican wave could bring in a Republican legislature and a Republican governor. Is the current crop of conservative candidates springing from the tea party movement ready to put their values into practice? In Idaho, the state party convention passed a slew of resolutions in support of conservative values, but at least one conservative state representative is worried they are failing to plan policies that will support the agenda.
Nationwide, many candidates are defined by the things they are against (i.e., ObamaCare, cap and trade, and amnesty), as well as by impractical ideas (ex: repealing the 17th Amendment, abolishing the Federal Reserve). But many will win this November, not only because of what they oppose, but because they’re not part of the Democratic Party.
What will the impact of hard-fought conservative victories be? Success will be short-lived if conservative victors find themselves asking the question Robert Redford’s character posed at the end of The Candidate after securing a term in the U.S. Senate:
What do we do now?
Conservatives candidates should have a governing plan. While the components will differ from state to state, these four conservative ideas are a good place to start.
1) Tax reform
Many state tax codes are anti-growth. For example, Ohio has a complex nine-bracket tax code, Oklahoma has seven brackets, and Iowa has six. Other states have high top tax brackets that punish success and discourage successful people from moving to the state, such as Iowa’s 8.98% top bracket.
The aim of conservative legislators should be to either flatten out the tax code by consolidating and reducing overall rates and eliminating deductions, or by eliminating the income tax altogether and relying on other sources of revenue, such as a sales tax to fund state operations. States like Florida and Texas already do this. Whatever approach is taken, it is vital that states governed by conservatives pass pro-growth tax codes.
2) Right-to-work and other checks on Big Labor
Right-to-work laws protect workers from being required to join a union or pay an agency fee as a term of employment. These laws protect the rights of individuals who don’t want their union dues going to the propagation of liberal ideas and candidates. This will reduce the influence of Big Labor, as many people will choose to leave labor unions or not become members if they’re not required to join a union or pay an agency fee as a condition of employment.
Striking a blow against unions is the right thing to do for the American economy.
Additional items:
5. Look at what Indiana’s governor, Mitch Daniels, has been doing for some time to slim government, provide cost-effective health care options, divest (profitably) of inefficient public property, and trim inefficiencies.
6. Going beyond these steps, state governments should look at their legislative and regulatory bases, identify unjustified burdens on private citizens and entrepreneurship, and eliminate them. The “guillotine” method of review, in which all government bodies are required to (adequately) justify their regulations by a certain date, or they are automatically repealed, is an excellent way of focusing public-servant attention on the matter. This has worked in places like Moldova, Ukraine and South Korea, and is ongoing in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. US states differ from these places only in terms of scale.
7. One other key point of focus should be (with in the above) that of laws and regulations having the force of law, and generating criminal sanctions for their violation. The effort in this area should be on rationalizing the potential for inadvertent criminal violation by state citizens during normal, every-day affairs, as well as removal of criminal sanctions for “victimless” crimes such as substance abuse, in favor of–perhaps–administrative sanctions on use or abuse of state benefits.
As statues are decriminalized, free affected individuals from confinement and expunge their records where appropriate, reducing state prison populations.
8. Attack lawlessness, particularly among illegal aliens, by enforcing employment laws, backing state IDs requirements with citizenship proof (birth certificate, passport, or equivalents), and requiring identification during voting. (“Alien” being the technically correct term for a citizen not of the USA, present in the USA.) Enforce state voter-protection laws (anti-intimidation, coercion, fraud, etc.) where they exist, and enact them where they do not.
9. Attempt to establish the necessary structure for state-specific temporary work/residency permits for aliens, issued by a single state, for that single state only, according to educational and quantity requirements established by that state. Manitoba is an excellent example of a regional unit (province in this case) that succeeded in negotiating a beneficial and specific arrangement with its national government. It’s Canada, not the USA, but would constitute a good first start for a template.
There are many things that need doing, but the underpinning key is “economic freedom” for the citizens of the States. In most cases, this is the removal of burdensome abuses of government power. In others, it is the protection and respect of basic law and order required for property protection and a functioning Republic.
A lot of work, at this point.
–JC
Our country needs immediate first aid, then long term care – not the reverse.
Voters need to make it crystal clear that they will not tolerate any deviant behavior from elected representatives no matter who they are, where they are or what their excuses are.
Voters need to make it clear that they are on top of things, up to speed, will take punitive action and things will stay that way permanently.
Obama needs to be completely neutralized.
The man deserves no mercy or relief.
Congressional Democrats need to be completely neutralized,
None of them deserve any mercy or relief.
Above all, God help the Rinos.
They are the first thing that needs to be thrown out with no exceptions.
The world needs to know that America is back, still here in the form of alliances and militarily impossible to defeat. No cheap, third world dictator should be allowed to think that he can for one second get away with insulting our country, our President or our people.
We do not kneel to anyone!!
Americans are sick to death of round shoulder, broad rear end, soft spoken, prissy politicians that are worthless as tits on a boar hog.
Americans are starved for character, courage, moral strength and willingness to fight for what is right coming from their elected representatives.
Once they have those kind of people in place, everything else (like the recommendations in this article) will begin to effectively work.
Reducing the fiscal burden and balancing the budget is hard work. I have been exploring a radical idea in this area. Payer directed Fiscal system.
http://www.vacoyecology.com/PAYERDFS.html
This allows much more taxpayer control in place of representative control. It not user pays, it partly allows free-riders but thats true for all pork barrel politics. At least this pork barrel is clearly labelled. It means that people learn to ‘live’ within their means in fiscal terms.
This was written a few years ago. I was a little sceptical but we are moving to a point where this is needed. Its a teaching tool not a cure all. Its written ant the national level but its applicable at all levels. The ultimate destination s a full free market in governance but few have working models.
Typo sorry: “Its written at the national level…”
Excellent article & excellent ideas. It’s not enough to be anti-Obama. We need to advance our own “progressive” agenda.
Some other suggestions
– A true color-blind government. End all minority set-asides and quotas. Insist that only non-racial criteria be used for any form of government assistance.
– Definitively explain why it is that it is the conservatives who want health care for the poor. State the what-should-be-obvious point that better health care for the poor means they need access to doctors and nurses, which means we need to increase the number of doctors and nurses and/or increase the amount of time they work. Articulate the reasons why people quit the medical professions or avoid entering it or cut back on the hours they work. These reasons would include unnecessary government and legal hassles, and state policies not making it worth the effort to acquire the skills needed to practice. Explain that it is concern for the poor and people in general — in my case it is and I suspect so for many other conservatives — that causes us to demand the repeal of 0-care and other reforms, such as tort reform, that the leftist oppose.
– Explain that how it is the conservatives who want to fight pollution and global warming — for those who still believe it– by replacing coal(dirty to mine, dirty to burn) with nuclear and hydro-electric power.
I’m sure other planks for our conservative progressive agenda can be found.
If the Tea Party (not the fake one) can have the impact it has had on
local and federal policy without any federal or state funding, then the Unions
and liberals can do the same.
Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, you should not have to pay for other
peoples decisions.
If conservatives want to govern in the short term, they should leave the abortion issue alone. Time and time again, its been shown that bringing abortion to the forefront as an issue is only divisive and just makes people get nasty. Right now tea partiers and the bulk of americans are not demanding that anything be done about abortion. Its about the spending, stupid. If republicrats get elected and view that as a mandate to bring abortion to front and center, then Obama will be re-elected and once again republicrats will have scewed things up.
“The left will fight back against any conservative agenda, but if conservatives pass a practical agenda that will make their states better while hampering the left’s ability to game the system, the fight will be worth it.”
And therein lies the dilemma. The current crop of Conservatives as a group don’t have the spine. They’re too eager to take a soft line, prefacing every dissenting comment with some expression of respect for the opposition, always eager to seek the holy grail of bi-partisanship. “I respect my ‘friends’ on the other side of the aisle but……..” Their “friends” have no such compunction. Look at the hatchet job Congressman Weiner did to Congressman King on Fox News the other day. Weiner is the quintessential Liberal Democrat, a pitbull capable of making mincemeat out of a Conservative. Other than Paul Ryan, NJ Governor Chris Christie, SC Senator Jim DeMint, Rudy Giuliani and perhaps Sarah Palin I can think of no other Conservative/Republican politician that can stand toe to toe with the average Democrat hack politico. I hope I’m totally off base but, if they’re out there, where are they?
The other problem is that Democrats have very successfully established themselves as the “party of the people” by forever promoting “feel good” legislation that, when opposed by Conservatives on solid, rational grounds, opens a huge hole in their political armor the Democrats eagerly await to fire their pre-loaded Howitzer through. Protestations about the dangerous trend of overspending and the need for budget restraint are met with whiny, tearful expressions of disbelief that anyone could be so heartless as to be more concerned about money than the public welfare and the general public gets dutifully outraged that the Government is being prevented from spending money it doesn’t have for such a “worthy cause;” whatever it is.
Conservatives face a very tough road and have a two year window, with Obama and his adoring sycophants in the media poised to pounce, to overcome the decades long onslaught of Democrat propaganda about the party of the rich, etc., etc., etc. Not much time to completely shift the paradigm but, given the chance, I sincerely hope they can pull it off.
Did you stop and think that maybe the state need an income tax? to keep state government afloat Unions aren’t the problem they are our representatives in labor they try to give us a better work place higher wages stupid. if it were up to you we would pay them to work right. Can i ask you a question is that sugar in your cool aid or is it strychnine; for got you can’t read that well
This post, folks, is what pure comedy is made of.
When a union is formed by STATE GOVERNMENT workers, this means the normal economic ‘market tension’ between labor and management, that is to say the natural tension which sets the price of the labor, is out the window.
Instead you get government, which technically is management in this sort of dispute, also acting as advocate for labor AND as the arbiter who SETTLES the labor/management dispute.
So, government is management, government speaks for labor, and government decides which of the ‘two parties’ wins the negotiation.
The only question is, where does the money come from? Normally, when you’re management, it’s corporate revenues from work that is done, and that is the lever which labor can pull to get management to cough up more pay and benefits. If work is not done, there is no revenue, ergo management’s interest is in getting labor to show up.
BUt in this twisted scenario, the revenue is endless, and it comes from YOU. Government can agree, as management, to pay ‘labor’ more, because government as labor advocate made a good case and government as arbiter agreed it was a good case.
But who represents the taxpayer in this deal?
NOBODY. Including the people who were elected by the taxpayer to exercise fiscal and fiduciary responsibility with THEIR MONEY.
Thanks, president Kennedy. Government unions are the worst idea EVER. What a mugging.
Oh-so-much more could be called for — and should be.
#1 At the immediately achievable end, goals could include:
1A) Start paving the way for **repeal of the health care bill in 2012**. More than any other thing, this is the single rallying cry that will galvanize a LOT of voters. Don’t muddy the message: make it *the* basic requirement for any politician to get a vote in 2010/12. A condition of employment.
1B) Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley and “Mark to Market” requirements for business. More than any other thing, this *triggered* the financial collapse, though the CRA and other Federal policies that “encouraged” banks to make bad loans for almost twenty years certainly contributed to the massive credit expansion that is the root of our current crisis.
1C) Eliminate “nation building” as defense department policy. This is why brush wars like Afghanistan have become so ridiculously expensive. The Leftists and Neo-Cons (another form of RINO) have infected warfighting with the notion that “winning the peace” is more important than eliminating a threat. So we spend $2B to conquer Saddam Hussein and $800B to re-build it. NOT OUR JOB. We must put the security of the United States first. If a country needs a new government, they don’t get to vote. They get the U.S. Constitution, period.
1D) Eliminate all foreign subsidies. If they don’t like it, tough.
1E) Lots more.
#2: We also need to start paving the way for mid-range goals (5 – 10 years). As examples:
2A) The elimination of Omnibus Bills that have the kitchen sink in them. We must end smuggled legislation. Require bills to have a real theme — and anything that doesn’t fit that theme isn’t allowed in. No more agriculture “reparations” in defense bills, for instance. (AKA, Shirley Sherrod.)
2B) Politicians should be required to have their paychecks forfeited if they vote for *any* bill that exceeds a balanced budget.
2C) Politicians who sponsor and vote for legislation (including the President) that is ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court should be **personally liable in perpetuity** for the harmful effects of their legislation to the American people — and exempt from bankruptcy laws. (Think how this would deter egregiously unconstitutional legislation and omnibus bills. You can give them an out if they go through review by the Supreme Court before passage.)
2D) Privatization of Social Security — which is the only thing that will save that mess. And the rest of us from the next economic extinction event. Give people opt-out options, like “don’t pay, don’t get”. Or, no estate taxes if they opt out. Etc. Many tax breaks can be offered to incentivize even the old to get out. For instance, after 65, let them work tax free to earn more than SSI pays out.
2E) The elimination of entire Federal Bureaucracies. Cut them off at the ankles entirely. AGRICULTURE (billions for crops we don’t need and for not growing crops we do need). FDA — who have killed more people than any other agency with obstacles to new drugs, and support for bad drugs. Dept. of EDUCATION — who are killing the nation with ignorance and socialist brainwashing. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, who block any new mining and continue the biggest land grab since Ghengis Khan. Shut DOWN Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Federal government has NO business in the housing). LABOR department — treat all unions as businesses (which they are). SEC — no more surfing for porn at taxpayer expense. (Seriously, the SEC doesn’t do anything to protect us. At all.)
2F) Many others. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget. Did we need all that in 1793?
#3: At the long-range (10 – 20 years) we need to promote:
3A) the requirement that *anyone* receiving Federal subsistence forfeit the _right to vote__, to eliminate the Democratic strategy of expanding handouts to get votes. (Probably requires a Constitutional Amendment and a radical change in the voters — but you’ve got to get people thinking and talking about it.)
3B) SEPARATION OF STATE AND ECONOMICS. There is *nothing* good that the Feds can do that is good for economics except **laissez nous faire** — get the hell out of our way. The Federal government should be forced onto a gold standard (constitutional amendment), _prohibited_ from printing money, and should only be allowed to borrow in a time of *declared* war.
I could go on and on. Let’s use our imagination to *create* new issues that look bad for any politician to oppose. Box the SOBs into a corner. But the overarching message **must** be: Limited Government whose sole task is protecting the Rights of the **Individual** — eliminate group rights! Protection of Individual Rights are the only thing the government is supposed to be doing. This is a rallying cry that even some Democrats could support. Don’t dilute it with social issues. Saving the country right now is too important.
A GREAT START!
#6 Richard: “if conservatives want to govern in the short term, they should leave the abortion issue alone.” I agree; also if they want to govern in a longer term. There is nothing conservative about trying to control elements of citizens’ personal & private lives. Do I want my tax dollars going to subsidize abortion? No, but I do make contributions to Planned Parenthood because they have good programs.
For Jan in Michigan #5) and your reference to Tea Party having an effect on federal and local policy……… I have yet to hear of any Tea Party group or leading activist taking on wasteful spending in the Pentagon. It’s as if the whole Tea Party movement turns a blind eye to that.
For #9; Robb: “Interior Department, who block any new mining and continue the biggest land grab since Genghis Khan.” Perhaps you could elaborate a bit. For one thing, the 1872 mining law is obsolete by many decades and gives the royal screw to taxpayers as hard rock mining companies pay no royalties to the Treasury, unlike oil & gas operators.
As for a land grab, seems to me that the energy companies have perpetuated the biggest land grab since the days of the 19th Century railroad robber barons. As just one example, energy companies have leased almost all the BLM land contained in two field offices in NW Colorado. However, only a minuscule portion is in development. From the Craig office, they have 1 million acres, but only 15% in development. The remainder sits as an enhancement to the corporate bottom line.
The way I figure it is that the pro-aborts who finally see the disaster that progressive leftism is for this country (and their wallets which is what they seem to care most about) can tag along with us who have been been consistent about what that evil is, or not. I’m not going to compromise on Roe must go. It is as much about loving the Constitution and representative republican government as it is about protecting the rights of other human beings.
To answer the mining question … try to start a new mining operation anywhere in the country. Good luck. Even many existing mines are almost impossible to operate in some areas. Colorado, for instance.
As to whether mining companies “should” pay the Treasury… No. In a system of capitalism and private property the mining companies should *buy* the property and that’s it. But no one can *own* private property anymore, speaking generally. Everything gets leased, controlled, regulated, especially new mines, and especially those in the vast tracts of wilderness areas that the Feds have seized. This is a form of fascism. See Ayn Rand, in “Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal” for the general principles. The only proper function of any government is protecting individual rights, which include property rights. But something you only have “permission” to operate, like a mine in a National Forest? Forget it. What we have today is a form of fascism, ie, state control of the means of production, with the illusion of property rights. Of course, even that gets bastardized in the age of post-modernism, with the fascism being partly a variant of socialism.
What’s forgotten by most people today, including those on the Right: the concept of owning something *by right*, meaning, something no one take away from you, no one can tell you what to do with. So long as you violate no one else’s rights. (Property rights are they only proper way to handle so-called “environmental” violations. If you dump something in a stream that flows on someone else’s property, for instance. )
That’s a short and very incomplete and somewhat unfocused answer. All I can afford right now.
By your standard, there’s nothing conservative about prohibiting slavery. Being a conservative is about defending life and liberty.
It is actually very simple.
Now simple does not mean easy. If you watch a high degree black belt bust through a stack of 20 bricks — well it is simple — just a strike down with the body, arm, hand. Do it wrong — ouch. So not easy. But simple, yes. So how does this apply?
Fiscal conservatism alone. Simply cut the Federal budget by defunding every government department by 20% — except for the Department of Defense. (That can be dealt with later.) But simply only fund each Federal department at 80% of 2010 levels. The result will be either massive layoffs, or sharp salary plus benefit reductions, or both.
Next simply raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. Just do it. And give anyone currently 65 – 69 six months to look for work, then regardless, terminate their social security. They will also have to wait for age 70.
Next simply cut medicare DRUG funding by 50%. Cover painkillers at 100%, everything else gets cut 50%. When people die, they die. Everyone dies anyway.
I am serious. It will take doing this, all of this, to correct the problem.
This is probably a non-starter until the Dems lose both houses of Congress, but at some point we will need to enact several amendments to the Constitution. No major overhaul, but we need a more vigorous set of checks and balances than the ones we have now. The very fact of our current predicament is all the proof anyone needs of this. At a bare minimum, adopt amendments to do the following:
1) Repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments (authorizing federal income tax and direct election of senators, respectively).
2) Put the “living constitution” out to pasture once and for all, with an amendment that explicitly establishes the original intent of the authors of the Constitution, and/or of its amendments, as the standard by which they and all federal law are to be evaluated by the judicial branch. Other domestic law and more recent legal opinions may be considered for support and corroboration, but absolutely no foreign or religious law (*cough*shari’a*cough*) of any kind.
3) Require every bill introduced to either house of Congress to include a statement of intent not to exceed 500 words. (Hyphenated-and*otherwise^not_quite#separated-words-shall-be-considered-separately-in-the-word-count-for-obvious-reasons.) Any portion of any legislation passed and signed into law is subject to challenge and nullification for being inconsistent with the statement of intent. This is to discourage the odious practice of attaching pork-barrel or other unrelated provisions to popular or vital legislation.
4) Adopt 4-year federal budgets (one per presidential term, beginning/ending no later than one year after the start of the term) and require them to be balanced. Deficits would be allowed only to a maximum of 1% of the total budget over its four-year term, and then only if the outstanding debt does not exceed 10% of the budget, in which case a surplus is required until the debt is completely retired. If these rules end up putting the government into a bind during a crisis, or prevents Congress from adopting some expensive set of legislation until the next budget… tough break.
Is it racist to notice obama is a blithering idiot?
I agree with the four points – they all basically boil down to unhooking the parasitical Left from our bloodstream and forcing them to earn their own way. Which they can’t do because all their ideas are disasters and can’t survivie without forced contributions.
It is all about the economics. Even the moral issues have their answers in economics. The Death Cultists preach their evil using our money. Take that away from them and their power will wither away. Let them keep that tap and they will continue to poison the minds of another generation of children. Nothing is more important than defunding the Left. Because without defunding them, no other victory will be lasting or meaningful.
Abortion: Conservatives vs. the Others
For those unaware, conservatives are far from perfect.
If proof were needed for that statement, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford provided it in spades when he chucked wife, family, office, and self-respect to go trotting off to South America to hook up with his Argentinian bimbo, Maria Belen Chapur.
However, Sanford’s excursions prove absolutely nothing with regard to conservatives in America aside from verifying that males of our human species–conservative, liberal, “moderate,” “progressive,” or homosexual–are imperfect and have a propensity to stray.
What is also indisputable is that true conservatives have an inviolable respect for life, for the societal necessity to recognize that protecting and preserving any and every stage of life as basic to civilized society, that to ignore or trample on that essential and obvious truth is to ignore and trample on that which distinguishes humans from beasts of the jungle.
That prevalent pro-life sentiment among conservatives doesn’t necessarily make them better people and doesn’t reflect a “holier than thou” attitude. It simply reflects a concern for the nature of society and the utter collapse of society’s value systems.
Any society is rightfully judged by how it treats the weakest in its midst, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1834)