Republicans must look to core values

The Republican Party has received flack from the media and the left for being too “conservative,” while on the other hand there are those who are considered “conservative” stating that the party is becoming too moderate.

Eric Thieleman

So what is it exactly? Is the Republican Party too moderate or too radical? Above all, we can all see that they are just wrong.

I am by no means a liberal-minded person, but the GOP faces many problems they must repair before moving on. The economic policies that were once advocated by the likes of Barry Goldwater and Robert Taft have essentially become defunct in the modern political world.

The GOP has reverted to a policy of big government that’s similar to that of their counterpart. In fact, President George W. Bush drove up the federal deficit when he should have, as a fiscal conservative, decreased it. When Bush exited office earlier this year he left a $410 billion budget deficit.

Let’s remember that this is just the deficit in the annual budget, so there is more than $400 billion per year added to the national debt. As we know, the majority of that increased spending went to the neo-conservative endeavors in the Middle East in the name of national security. This leads to the first of the many issues the GOP must deal with: its lack of economic sense and priorities.

In the 2008 presidential election exit polls, terrorism was only considered to be the most important issue by 9 percent of voters. However, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., lacked a working knowledge of anything aside from terrorism and the war in Iraq. His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, also lacked a coherent knowledge of everything relevant to the nation. Neither McCain nor Palin could answer to the economic problems, which, according to exit polls, 63 percent of voters said were their primary concern.

A major issue in our current economic climate is the ability of our nation’s industrial and agricultural bases to exist without friction from our own fiscal and trade policies. The Republican Party, at least, decided to grow a backbone and protest the government bailouts of the auto industries and demanded that the Obama administration practice fiscal responsibility.

I agree with the Republicans on this issue; the government does not have constitutional permission to fund private corporations. My only complaint is that the Republicans have lacked fiscal responsibility since the turn of the century, most notably during the Bush years of excessive spending on the war on terror, except when it was politically convenient for them to take that position. I would never claim that President Obama has fiscal responsibility, though I expect more out of the Republican Party when it comes to limiting government spending and they have failed to deliver.

Another issue the Republican Party needs to deal with is its fascination with terrorism. For eight years, the Republican Party focused on the war on terrorism and ended up paying for it when they watched their party collapse into oblivion. During the 2008 Republican primary there was an overwhelming focus on terrorism and future wars in the Middle East. Republicans need to abandon their dogma on terrorism and look elsewhere for new ideas.

The Republican Party is not dead in the water — not quite yet. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen 0Specter leaving the party should not be seen as a death wish but rather as part of a natural purge of useless, unprincipled people. Republicans need to stop idolizing President Ronald Reagan and get back to the original principled leaders like Goldwater and Taft.

There are three things Republicans must do in order to resolve their identity issues. The first is to drop the obsession with terrorism and move on to issues that the country believes are still relevant. The second is to be consistent on economy and government-spending issues, to vow to limit the size and scope of government and stick to it at all times. Finally, the Republican Party must separate itself from the Democrats; they must give voters some real reason to vote for them instead of the Democrats.

The GOP’s problems truly don’t involve moderation or extremism; they only involve common sense.

Eric Thieleman is a State News guest columnist and a political science senior. Reach him at thielem4@msu.edu.