Johnny Come Lately?
In what is shaping up to be an awful year for Republicans, the GOP primary voters managed to pick the one candidate that might actually have a chance in November. With President Bush’s embarrassing approval rating and a Republican Party which is hemorrhaging registered voters, Sen. John McCain’s image of independence and reform gives the GOP an opportunity to not only stop an election blowout, but also to improve or even alter the negative themes (corruption, ineptitude, mismanagement) that many now associate with the party. Unfortunately, Sen. McCain has not taken the steps required to seize the opportunities available due to the voter’s angst, and thus win the election and save his party.
What would Sen. McCain need to do to win? I would suggest an overarching theme of reform, based on four basic principles close to the voters’ heart. He should repeat these ideas at every opportunity, claiming a history of reform over inexperienced and unknown change.
1) A simple energy plan based on CONSERVATION, INNOVATION, and EXPLORATION. Sen. Obama is locked into a difficult position due to the intransigence of his most vocal and partisan supporters and the radicalism of the environmentalist left that controls the Democrat party. While liberal pols scream about high gas prices, their real complaint is only that the government didn’t raise the prices through a gas tax increase. Basic economics tells us that a massive increase in the price of something will lead to less use of it. The environmentalists have long wanted to decrease energy consumption in this country, often with cries that we are “dependent on foreign oil.” Sen. McCain must challenge the slogans of the Left by agreeing that we must get off foreign oil, but do so by using American oil.
Sen. McCain has altered his views on offshore drilling due to the unprecedented gas prices, but still clings to his opposition to drilling in ANWR. He must change his view on this, not just for political expedience, but also for what is best for the country. In order to do so, he should visit ANWR personally, and take in the fact that the area where drilling would take place is much less than 1% of the refuge and is not “pristine,” but rather barren and frigid in winter and barren and mosquito-infested in summer.
As for the innovation and conservation, Sen. McCain should drop his support for an economy-destroying cap-and-trade system that will just cause more pain for the working class and middle class voters he needs, and instead advocate for unleashing the ingenuity of America and encourage environmental entrepreneurship through increased use of tax credits and incentives, and continue to fine-tune his proposal of a multi-million dollar reward for private inventors who can help us with more efficient vehicles. He should stress the energy crisis will be solved by using all avenues available to the country, and the Sen. Obama is too beholden to the far Left to be open to drilling. He should repeat the phrases “environmentally sound drilling” and “safe nuclear power,” speak of increased conservation efforts, and emphasis emphatically that drilling in America will lead to more family wage American jobs.
2) A sharp, radical plan to battle political corruption. The disastrous Republican election in 2006 was due to mismanagement in Iraq and what seemed a never-ending stream of scandals involving GOP congressmen. In order to battle the perception of incompetence and corruption, Sen. McCain, who has a good start in that he has a reputation of being a fighter for transparency and against government overspending, must push loudly and endlessly for an end to all earmarks, new lobbying restrictions, and more transparency and restrictions on when politicians’ family members are hired with companies which have business before Congress. These aren’t exactly pressing issues for many, but they are important issues in battling the stultifying perception that threatens to seriously wound the GOP and most of its candidates, federal to state to local. When discussing these issues, he should mention recent Democrat scandals in Congress, e.g. “Friends of Angelo,” Rangel’s apartments, etc.
3) It has been mentioned many times before by writers smarter than I, that the Republican Party needs to keep and win back voters who are in the working and middle classes. They are being the hurt the most by a lack of increase in wages, the rise in gas prices, and enlarged health care costs. Others have proposed some ideas to do this, and they include such things as a huge increase in the child tax credit, targeted tax cuts for the working and middles classes, and health care reform. (Those who have addressed these issues include Atlantic Monthly writers Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam in Grand New Party, and Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry in the current National Review.) Sen. McCain has a great health care reform plan, but he doesn’t appear interested in discussing the issue, much less learning the details. This is an immense mistake, but one that is not limited to Sen. McCain; most Republican politicians have not taken up the issue from a free market perspective, thus conceding the issue to the Democrats. Sen. McCain needs to address health care and use the following words to, correctly, describe his plan: reform, choice, portability, flexibility, competition, efficiency, price decreases. These will be the results of his approach to health care, but most voters haven’t heard that he even has one.
4) The final issue is just a refutation of conventional wisdom and an admonition to the McCain camp. Social issues, it is assumed, have hurt the Republican Party, especially a pro-life stance on abortion. The aforementioned Ponnuru has explored this issue, and decisively presented the case that the exact opposite is true. The GOP gains more votes than it loses by its social positions, especially among Catholics and the working class. These voters would most likely abandon the GOP were the party to itself abandon a traditional stance on social issues. Sen. McCain must not ignore these issues, and certainly not antagonize any more of the leaders within the social conservative movement. He has an impressive pro-life record; he shouldn’t be ashamed or reticent about it.
If McCain is to have a chance, and the Republican Party a future, he must reclaim the mantle of reform and target the anxieties of the working and middle classes.
