Vision 2020 – Progress for Michigan & America

Conservatives are on defense since President Obama’s narrow win last November. America remains more divided than ever, and the President is sticking to his game plan of pitting Americans against each other. I’ve talked with people of all different political viewpoints, and everyone is tired of the bickering.

All is not lost, though, since conservatives maintain majorities in several states, including Michigan. How they play their cards in the next few years will determine whether a conservative like Marco Rubio will be campaigning for reelection for President in 2020 or someone like Hillary Clinton, the President’s choice to succeed him.

Conservatives must focus on blocking the policies of a President who is likable and personally very popular with a majority of Americans. These same Americans do not see Republicans as their friends.

CPAC Conference in Washington, DC, March 14-16

Well-known conservatives like Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan defended his budget plan and said the nearly $17 trillion debt will “weigh down the country like an anchor” within the next ten years.

Lesser known people like Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Attorney General, and David Keene, President of the NRA, spoke. Cuccinelli’s office has filed lawsuits to block Obamacare; he laid out five policy points if elected governor. Keene spoke of the effort to preserve America’s Second Amendment Rights.

Newer stars like U.S. Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul and lesser known Senators like Kelly Ayotte, Mike Lee, Tim Scott and Pat Toomey also spoke.

Some of the thirty Republican governors also spoke: Rick Perry of Texas, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

I heard part of Mitt Romney’s speech, engaging and humble. He mentioned the accomplishments of Republican governors in purple and blue states including Rick Snyder of Michigan.

I’ll add my ideas to theirs – suggest listening to everyone’s ideas and not listen too much to news reports which focus on controversy.

Job One – Reagan Republicans vs. Rockefeller Republicans

First order of business is to solve the internal battle within the GOP. Tea Party Republicans must stick firmly to their principles and win the battle with the Big Tenters who think more elections can be won from the center.

We can’t listen to the news media and liberals – they fear a true conservative like Reagan much more than a Big Tenter. So they will demonize the conservatives in the primary and favor the Democrat in the general election anyway.

A New Calvin Coolidge Needed

Actually, we don’t need a Ronald Reagan for the new century, but rather a Calvin Coolidge. The February 2013 issue of Imprimis from Hillsdale College noted Reagan’s failure to restrain government spending as he proved that supply-side economics work.

Cutting marginal tax rates does increase government revenue. It was also done successfully by John F. Kennedy, hardly a conservative in other areas.

Reagan successfully cut tax rates but had to deal with a big-spending Democratic Congress for part of his tenure. He also failed to stop the growth of government, merely slowed its growth.

In contrast, Calvin Coolidge’s policies were popular with the people but not with government, noted Amity Shlaes, author of the biography Coolidge, in Imprimis.

Following WWI, America’s debt burden stood ten times higher than before the war, veterans were having trouble finding work, and prices had risen while wages had lagged. Sound familiar?

Unlike most of today’s politicians, Coolidge knew how to say no. “We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic of undeveloped people, or of a decadent generation.”

Coolidge had a “Two Percent Club” for executive branch staffers who managed to save two percent in their budgets, and a One Percent Club for those who had already gotten two percent. Continuous improvement was not neglected either: a Woodpecker Club for those who kept chipping away. Wouldn’t that be refreshing in a President?

I recommend the Imprimis issue and might just add the Coolidge biography to my reading list. We need people who are willing to freeze or cut government budgets, not just cut the rate of increase and have it called a draconian cut by their opponents.

Conservative Ideas are Better – They Actually Work

Conservatives don’t have all the best ideas, but we build on what has worked in the past with a spirit of continuous improvement, rather than seeking to transform America into something it never was.

We need to combine everyone’s best ideas to make the best soup. Here’s an outline of some ideas which can be championed by conservatives. Many of them will draw broad public support.

Government Reform

1. Respect for our written constitution with amendments. Conservatives do not wish to return to the 18th century as some charge, but move forward with our written constitution and ALL amendments as the basis for our laws.
2. Supermajority for all constitutional amendment ballot proposals. The recent defeat of well-funded statewide ballot proposals with recommendations from all major newspapers shows broad support for this, except among special interests who want to bypass the normal legislative process with one-sided proposals on complex issues.
3. Reform of Electoral College – patterned after Nebraska & Maine, which have Electors for each Congressional District and 2 Electors for whoever wins the state
4. End to Gerrymandering – We don’t know which party will control the state legislature in 2020. Now is the time to adopt a bipartisan plan which insists on city and county lines where possible. Other states like Iowa have good laws. This could be combined with item 3 to make it more palatable to Democrats who are suspicious of Republicans.
5. Term Limits for Congress & County Government: Congress enjoys approval ratings below 30% regardless of which party is in charge. Many voters see little difference between Big spending Democrats vs. Big Spending Republicans except for whom they tend to favor with their spending. Term limits have helped the cream to rise to the top in state government; it’s time we had them in Congress and county government.
6. Force Congress to live by the laws they pass – enough said.
7. End unfunded mandates – they stifle economic growth.
8. Immigration Reform – separate the issues to end the logjam.
   • Seal the border to new illegal immigration.
   • Deal compassionately with the people already here from >30 years of lax immigration policy.

Economic Reforms

1. Educate people that capitalism is the best system for wealth generation in this imperfect world. Use examples from other countries to illustrate this – we have no clue how bad it is in the rest of the world
2. Block Obamacare – bad for America and all Americans. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” Calvin Coolidge. Better to repeal Obamacare and have no law than to try to reform it.
3. It’s all one big pot – no separate taxes for each service
4. Revitalize our cities – Detroit, Flint and Pontiac. Even Warren made Forbes Most Miserable Cities list. Solve the crime and education problems. What we’re doing now obviously isn’t working. It’s time for a new approach.
5. Phase out toll roads & bridges – a Mackinac Bridge Toll Booth in the Nebraska Transportation Museum by 2020. Michigan could lead the way by setting an example for other states. We already have a very efficient means in place to collect taxes for the roads we all use for transportation of goods, recreation – the gasoline tax! See item #3. More to come on this, my #1 pet peeve.
6. End the hypocrisy of government-sponsored gambling (lotteries)
   • New 50-50 game to promote savings accounts in private banks. Half the money goes into a conventional lottery ticket, the other half into a savings account. When the novelty of that wears off, that state can introduce an 80-20 game to up the ante. The money lost from this immoral tax on people who can least afford it will be more than made up in sales tax on purchases instead of high interest payday loans. And just maybe there will be less of a “you just can’t get ahead” mentality that we all are prone to. No freedom is being taken away, as everyone still has the option to buy conventional lottery tickets.
   • No more false advertising – good things don’t happen for education when you play the lottery. It’s a shell game, and most everyone knows it. When the education budget gets money from the lottery, it just gets less funding from the general fund. See item #3.

Moral Issues – Don’t abandon this area 

Restigmatizing certain activities would go a long way towards helping heal America’s torn social fabric.

1. Littering – give the moral reason why. It spoils the view for another human being. Yes, it’s nice to care for the planet, but the vacant lot doesn’t care if there is trash in it. It’s our own nest we’re fouling. We are the stewards, not the owners.
2. Swearing – another kind of air pollution. Why can’t we teach adults to have shame when they use the f-word as an all-purpose noun, verb, adjective and adverb? Instead of thinking it’s cool or just saying “it’s a term of endearment in my family” as Rahm Emanuel, now Mayor of Chicago said. Let’s at least reserve its use for when we’re very, very angry.
3. Sex outside of marriage. Pre-marital (stealing from someone’s future spouse) as well as adultery (stealing from the current one).

• Build a culture where human life is honored.
• Insist on mutual respect for those who disagree – dialogue, not harpoons & fishhooks

General

1. Maintain a presence in minority neighborhoods – don’t give up this block of voters. If you can win 20 or 30% of the votes of certain ethnic groups based on common values, it would tip the scales back and force liberal Democrats to be more socially conservative.
2. Maintain a presence in liberal news outlets – there are people in the middle who read them, too. Hold them accountable when they tell a biased story and support them when they tell the truth.

Conclusion

A polarized America has pressing problems which need bipartisan solutions instead of more divisive demagoguery. Note that many of these ideas involve changing our attitudes and will not necessarily need new laws.

Also note that I said restigmatize activities. Some bad behavior you cannot get rid of. But we should not ignore standards just because they may be unreachable for some. 

Children can be taught to put their candy wrappers in the trash. Adults can also learn to keep their own neighborhoods clean rather than asking the government to do it for them.

If Americans turned off the TV and refused to watch Hollywood’s latest degrading of our shared value system, or developed appetites for more uplifting fare, we’d be better off as a country.

Which of these topics would you like to hear more on? Please tell me in the comments.