GOP Needs a Coherent Plan to Govern

My friend RedStateVT thinks I have become an inveterate liberal because I no longer find anyone in the GOP worth voting for.  But that is the case because I do not trust the GOP to govern well.  And that is a shame because the country needs a vibrant 2 party system.

Why do I not trust the GOP? Because they have subscribed to the political philosophy of John C Calhoun: political nullification.  This is a theory of minority-interest democracy whereby the will of the majority is subordinated to the beliefs of the minority.  In other words, destroy the ability of the government to govern.  This policy was put into place by Bush II in an incoherent manner because it did not include any revenues to pay for the borrowed War on Terror while he cynically cut taxes and instituted an unfunded Medicare pharmaceutical benefit. In addition, following his belief that the private sector could be trusted to manage itself, he cut regulatory budgets by failing to fill open positions and let the mortgage sector run amok creating a systemic economic disaster devastating the lives of millions of baby boomers.  Now the GOP advocates returning to that system by balancing the budget and paying for the limited government (even the hard right wants a strong national defense with effective border enforcement) by cutting spending for entitlements that we have all paid into and counted on for our retirement.

Now I know these entitlements need adjusting, but while some in the GOP know they need more revenues to be fair, the party is a prisoner of its Tea Party wing that believes in political nullification.  They are not unique in following this.  This is how Prohibition came to be and this is how the NRA has taken over the legislative process.  And lest we forget. John Calhoun was a Congressman from South Carolina who led the desire for the new Western States to be slave states and, while he died in 1850, this path led to the Civil War whereby the South sought to continue slavery.

So, rightly or wrongly, in my mind a philosophy of political nullification has a direct link to support of slavery.  It is also bad government

Obama and Boehner had the Grand Bargain agreed to.  But Boehner could not deliver the votes because the nullifiers would not agree to it.  Now we have had an election and there is a need for more compromise.  The budget is not balanced and we need a plan to balance it.  My belief is that should be 2/3's spending cuts and 1/3 revenues, but I would be prepared to negotiate the exact levels if I was involved in such a negotiation.  But the nullifiers are preventing such a negotiation.  They would not even agree to a 90% cuts 10% revenue package before the election which they lost; so the majority spoke that they wanted more balance.

Nullification is ineffective government because we are a government of the majority and the majority believes in such government.  That is what elections are all about.

Nullification is also ugly.  Witness Ted Cruz resorting to McCarthy like innuendos to stir up his base without even a shred of evidence that such accusations had a base in reality.  

 How can a moderate fiscal person with a conscience vote for a Party that is not serious about the business of governing?

I thank The New Republic for educating me on Nullification. The new New Republic is well worth subscribing to.  RSL loves the back end where the arts are reviewed and I like the front end which generally looks at political issues in a factual manner.