A New Contract With America

I have a hard time writing about a subject when I am trying to say twelve things at once. I have to curb at least three tangents before moving forward.

 1. The CROmnibus and the day to day behavior of the GOP should make us reconsider Codevilla's epic analysis of the political class. We tend to consider expressed ideas brilliant if they reinforce what we were already thinking. Many of us have thought that the most important power struggle of the day was not Left vs. Right, Liberal vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican. It is Insider vs. Outsider.

Where Codevilla drops the ball is in his grouping the opposition into the "Country Class." My perspective is that the Country Class does exist but the opposition is larger and more diverse than that. The Country Class does not describe people like Larry Kudlow or Richard Epstein or Adam Corolla. The opposition is a tsunami waiting to happen.

 2. Any resistance movement will be hindered by the Cult of Obama. The idiots-by-choice who worship Barack Obama are unconditionally loyal to their deity. BHO announces that we are normalizing relations with Cuba and the throngs of loyalists ask "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" If he changed his mind and announced that we were going to nuke Cuba his loyalists would ask, "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" If he announced that he planned to promote global warming to melt the ice caps and flood our cities, the loyalists would ask, "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" And those changes of policy would not affect his approval ratings all that much.

 For all of the labels applied to BHO, he reveals himself to be a Beltway ubercrat. If Barack Obama could be the poster child for just one thing, that one thing would be K Street. The Insiders love the man, as well they should. He plans to stay in Washington after he leaves the White House? It's a perfect fit.

 3. What if the crash predicted by Peter Schiff and Ron Paul and many others never materializes? What if stagnation is the new normal? Energy might provide a renaissance but if the non-energy and non-lobbyist sectors are stuck in neutral, we might not be popping a lot of corks. I do not want to see an economic crash but I believe it is inevitable. Then again, I have been wrong in the past. Maybe Janet Yellen can prop us up for years to come. Maybe, we really can spend our way to prosperity. Maybe.

The New Contract With America should be concise and limited in its focus. It should emphasize the following:

1. Adherence to the Constitution. If you don't like the Second Amendment, repeal it. If you don't like those evil Little Sisters of the Poor practicing their First Amendment rights, repeal the First Amendment. If you don't like the PEOPLE at Hobby Lobby practicing their First Amendment rights, repeal that pesky First Amendment once and for all. But let us respect the Constitution. In the words of Sandy Shaw, "The Constitution is not perfect but it's better than what we now have."

2. Debt. AKA The Budget. The greatest anti-achievement of the Obama Administration is removing fiscal matters from public discourse. It's all settled science, no need to debate, how about the way the president conquered Ebola while ending two wars and sending an olive branch to Fidel?
Yes, I expressed some doubt about the debt time bomb above but I still believe that debt is one of the two or three greatest threats to America. Let's push the topic back into the public arena, what say you?

3. Defense of America. To acknowledge an international jihad movement in no way makes one an Islamaphobe or a hater or a racist. ISIS is real. Al Qedah is stronger than ever. I do not want a dirty bomb exploded in New York or anywhere else. Wake up!

4. Declawing The Bureaucratic State. Our system might require an umpire to call balls and strikes but it does not need the grounds crew to construct toll booths on the base paths. Congress is supposed to make law, not the FDA, the DEA, the EPA and certainly not HHS. The fourth branch of government needs to be scrutinized in toto. Maybe Joni Ernst will be allowed to put her prior work experience to good use.

Strategy:

We should support all elected officials who support our contract and oppose those who do not.

We need to reject those office holders who pay lip service to the contract but who vote otherwise.

We should compete in every election. Howie Carr said that the Dems won Massachusetts by running the same candidates over and over, improving their name recognition at every election. We could do this in districts ruled by Charlie Rangels types. We could recruit a 28 year old African American who is uncomfortable with the erosion of purchasing power and is not so sanguine about black genocide. The first time up he might only get 30% or so. But two years later he might get 40%. And third time around?  Well, his chances will improve each time a Charlie retires.

1994 showed us the power of a clear, concise message. 2012 and Mitt Romney showed us the futility of unclear messaging. In 2014, Dave Brat unseated Eric Cantor and went on to win a Congressional seat because he stood for something. Also in Virginia in 2014, Ed Gillespie nearly pulled off the Senate upset of the evening because he broke ranks with the GOP and discussed issues and solutions. Lesson learned?