Symposium: Purge the Party, Power to the People?

This article is in response to “It’s Time for Free-Market Populism” and is part of the symposium on What’s Wrong with Conservatism and How Do We Make It Right?

I agree with Mr. Carney: playing to the rich cannot be the future of the Republican Party, nor of Conservatism on the whole. And with all due respect, Mitt Romney is the face of keeping the little man down. He and the GOP are one cigar and a funny-shaped hat away from becoming the incredibly unsuccessful counterpart to Tammany Hall.

But let’s take a look at this: “Republicans are uncomfortable telling this story, because they are wedded to the idea that we have a real meritocracy or that a rising tide lifts all boats.” Is this not exactly what Mr. Carney puts forth as a solution? Be ruthless with cuts and watch the meritocracy rise? I get the rhetoric: the problem is government. If we could just get those fat cats out of office and get good virtuous politicians in their places, then the reign of the little man would begin and small business would grow like Athlete’s Foot in a high school shower.

I’m just not sure I buy that. Conservatism certainly can’t just appeal to the fat cats. Toupees and American Flag pins aren’t convincing anyone of anything. At the same time rigid ideology will fix little. The “cut-it-all-and-watch-‘em-squirm” model suffers from the same attempt at complete ideological purity that taints the liberal “tax-it-spend-it-bop-it-twist-it” model. Now you might say, “Chase, that isn’t what he said.” But isn’t it?

Sure tax cuts would include cutting programs popular with some of the Teapot Dome types. But this approach also assumes that the slash-and-burn method is unanimously successful, that any form of government involvement in the economy is tantamount to open homosexuality in Iran. And that is ideological purity. Granted, ideological purity is a valiant response to the world of back-room deals and Weiner scandals, but meeting steel with steel will do little but create sparks. What the conservative movements needs isn’t some purge devoted to nothing more than purity in the face of corruption. What is needed is a compromise approach, something with principle that isn’t just politics. Without that approach, we get a government shutdown; we increase international distrust and we end up “Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse / At times, indeed, almost ridiculous — / Almost, at times, the Fool.”