I am a fan of Peggy Noonan’s Saturday opinion pieces in the WSJ. She leans right but always brings intellect to bear and generally takes a larger more global & historical perspective that I find refreshing. This past Saturday she quoted Republican Mitch Daniels as follows:
Good practical advice on all this comes from Indiana's Gov. Mitch Daniels, who met this week in New York with conservative activists, journalists and historians. Our country is in real peril, he said, we have a short time to do big things to get it right. Republicans "need to campaign to govern, not merely to win." If Democrats are "the worst, the most malevolent" in their campaigning, "don't match 'em, let 'em." Be better. Be serious about the issues at a serious time.
This excellent quote gets at the heart of 2 matters, the general feeling that we are at the precipice on a number of issues and that the next 5 to 10 years might be critical to our very survival. The second is that politics have come to mimic their multi-national corporate handlers in that the primary concern is the next election cycle (the political equivalent to the next corporate quarterly profit report) and that there is precious little long term, strategic thinking, i.e. we run to win not to govern.
So the key question to Tea Party morons and the republicans is this, are you campaigning to win (throw the bums out!) or to actually govern. Would Mr. Daniels regard Massachusetts Attorney (and birther) Bill Hudak with his yard festooned with Obama as Osama Bin Laden pictures a "serious" candidate for a "serious time?" The huge amount of corporate money flowing into republican campaigns gives one precious little hope for the future as the moneyed interests are seeing this groundswell of public anger as a great tool in which to bring a friendlier corporate environment into Washington. Less annoying regulations, environmental concerns, global warming, functioning educational system and most of all LOWER TAXES!
As far as I can tell, for many on the right, EVERYTHING revolves around a mania about taxes (this, of course might just reflect my own proclivity!). It seems, at times, that conversation on all issues pivots primarily on the subject of taxes. This obsession, and the incredible energy being devoted to it, is small minded, anti-intellectual, shortsighted and ultimately destructive to our country.
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