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« Post-Election Reactions, Cont. | Main | A Grand Tradition » November 06, 2004Jumping the GunDonald Sensing has an essay that tries to give despondent Democrats a few recommendations on how to rebuild their party for electoral success in 2006 and beyond. While many of Donald's points are dead-on, I must take issue with #5: Tax and spend government programs alone = a losing slate. I would personally love to believe that. I have argued in favor of a massive reduction of government power since I began this web site, and I continue to hope for a day when the government will stop taking away freedoms from its people in exchange for the false promise of security. But I think arguing that the Democrats' message is one that inherently won't win enough votes is an argument for watching do just that. Prior to the election, I heard from our battalion Sergeant Major almost every day about what a bad person John Kerry is. SGM didn't like a damn thing about Kerry, going to far as to threaten to leave the country were Kerry elected. To say that the SGM would rather stick a hot poker in his eye than vote for Kerry might be hyperbole, but I'm not positive of that. Yet just a month before the election, I overheard the SGM chatting with another senior NCO about health care. The two of them agreed that it was ridiculous that the United States didn't offer the kind of universal health care they had seen in Germany. I can't speak for the other NCO, but I'm quite confident that our SGM voted against the candidate interested in that kind of government control over health care. He did so because he doesn't like Kerry personally, not because he disagreed with the basic Democratic position regarding health care. That's a sign of impending doom for either Republicans or limited government, depending on how Republicans address it. As Jim Henley has noted, while there is still the occasional politician willing to address limited government, both political parties have decided they'd rather have a powerful federal government at their beck and call than to pare back the size and scope of it. And the reason for that is simple enough: that's what the people want. Yes, there are many arguments to be made at the margins, but the success of President Bush and President Clinton suggests to me that expansive federal programs are a hit with the electorate. Certainly that has to be how you interpret President Bush's recent victory, as it seems highly unlikely the millions who voted for Senator Kerry were seeking a reduction in the size of the government. For now, the Republicans have two things going for them: the Democrats' history of raising taxes, and the Democrats' insistence on nominating people like John Kerry, Mike Dukakis and Walter Mondale. People just don't connect to technocrats, yet they do remarkably well in the Democratic primaries. The success of Bill Clinton suggests that the Democrats can nominate candidates who reach the electorate quite effectively when they choose to do so, however. That just leaves taxes, and as President Bush has never met a spending bill he didn't like, sooner or later the Republican advantage on taxes will fade as well. Republicans can be rightfully pleased with their performance on Tuesday. They did exceptionally well, a tribute to their efforts at improving their ground game. But sitting back and assuming that now they're home free is a recipe for disaster in the next election cycle.Posted at November 6, 2004 01:57 PM
Comment policyI apologize for only allowing authenticated commenters, but comment spam overwhelms the site if I don't use those measures to prevent it. I reserve the right to delete any comment, although generally comments will only be deleted due to use of profanity or personal attacks on people. I have no objection to vigorous argument, but when name-calling begins, I'm putting a stop to it. In the immortal words of Eugene Levy, "People, people, let's stop this before somebody says something untrue!" If you want to call people names, I recommend you get your own blog. Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsInteresting little tid bit there. I would expect also that military men and women receiving government run/universal medicine would appreciate how the rest of the population would like it as well. Or is that off base? A friend of mine in the Army said that military doctors were horrible, but he just had some anecdotes to back that up. Posted by: lamp at November 10, 2004 12:08 PM My experience with military health care has been limited, fortunately. What I have seen, however, has not impressed me. A good friend of mine saw his wife miscarry in the hospital emergency room while they were waiting to be seen, for example. Military health care is probably about what could be expected from any universal health care plan; it's generally adequate but rarely good or even great, and a lot of things slip through the cracks. With military health care, however, we do have the advantage of being able to go out and pay to see a civilian if we feel it's warranted. An expensive option, but sometimes the best one available. Someone without health care probably would prefer military health care to none at all. However, scaling up even the military's care to cover the entire country would not be possible without some massive changes in how the country operates, to include some pretty significant limitations on personal freedom. As a small example, military doctors can't be sued, even if they commit clear-cut malpractice. While I am of the opinion tort law is overused in our current medical system, I would hate to see it eliminated entirely. Posted by: Andrew at November 10, 2004 12:25 PM Besides, can you imagine being told that you have to wait for an appointment because some candy-ass tank driving major got a paper cut? Posted by: Enrak at November 10, 2004 09:44 PM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |
