Old Zach's post below regarding the tour of GOP worthies touting their acheivements has put me in full Joan Crawford mode.
I do not begrudge the GOP's efforts to tout their accomplishments. As the majority party, they have every right, and every responsibility, to remind voters of the policies they've advanced, the initiatives they've championed, and the goals they hope to reach should the voters decide to preserve that majority after next month's elections.
If only things were that simple, though. Regrettably for the Republicans, they are not.
But aside from the blogger call O.Z. mentions, there was also a press conference yesterday, covered here by the RTD's Tyler Whitley. It covers may of the same points O.Z. mentioned in his thumbnail, but packages it this way:
Among the accomplishments listed by the Republicans are abolishing parole; implementing school Standards of Learning, welfare and Medicaid reforms, tax relief, and tougher laws against sexual predators and drunken drivers; cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay; and passing a $3 billion transportation package.
Most of those were done under Govs. George Allen and Jim Gilmore, both Republicans.
That last line is absolutely devastating. In essence, much of what the worthies are touting happened long ago -- back when they were, in fact, a minority party. Those acheivements, big as they are, owed their success to strong Republican governors and...Democrats.
What has the GOP wrought while holding legislative majorities?
A tax increase in 2004, enabled by the Speaker's decision to ask two GOP House committee members to "take a walk" so that the tax bill could make it to the floor and pass.
And as a hefty side benefit, this tax hike also revived what had been a moribund Mark Warner gubernatorial term. The full results of this debacle will not be known until next year, when Warner faces an as yet to be determined Republican opponent to replace John Warner in the Senate.
Then there was the transportation bill, a hodge-podge of new fees and new (unelected) taxing authorities that has already cost one Republican his Senate seat and may, finally, cost several others their seats, too.
Let us also not forget that government today is bigger, and costs us all more, than it did before the GOP was handed the keys to the leadership washrooms.
This is not a conservative record. It is not a record of fiscal restraint, and it manages to avoid paying even lip-service to the now quaint concept of limited government.
In ways that are painful to admit, it is closer to the record established by the congressional Republicans before the 2006 elections. And the results in Virginia could be much the same.
For weeks now, I've been hearing bits of gossip and pieces of news about the prospects for the party in next month's elections.
Let's just say that if even half of what I'm hearing is true, then we had all best get used to the idea of saying "Majority Leader Saslaw," and perhaps even worse in the House.
That's not to give the Democrats any credit for running good races. As a party, they have put forward almost nothing in the way of a platform, let alone a vision for the Commonwealth that does not involve even more and even larger government. They are following as closely as possible the Pelosi model of campaigning, which is to stand on the proper corner and wait patiently for the victory bus to scoop them up in November.
All thanks to a rudderless, visionless GOP.
As I wrote before the 2006 elections back on OMT, the Republicans are so deep in the weeds, the only way they will find their way out is to lose, and lose handily in November. That will not sit well at all with my partisan friends, but I still believe defeat can be an invaluable tonic.
For Virginia Republicans, defeat can help them decide what they truly believe as a party. It will be ugly and painful. But it will also be useful, giving them the sort of clarity they need to come back strong in 2009 (and I fully believe that a Democratic victory in November will result in a GOP resurgence in 2009...Virginia voters may be tired of the GOP now, but they will tire even more quickly of the Democrats).
I could be wrong about all of this. And if I am, I will freely admit it. But I could be right. And if I am, then all of us who believe in limited, accountable, fiscally responsible government will have a great deal of work to do to ensure that those principles are restored to the primacy they deserve.
Another example of the GOP's problems...
This article also caught my attention this morning.
I've been saying for years that the Virginia GOP seems stuck in the past.
The list of accomplishments also seems to be lacking a major concern for every citizen in the 21st century: education.
Whatever your ideological stripe, no one is going to deny that the 21st century is going to be an age in which each of us must constantly update and upgrade our skills and knowledge base. This will be a pressing public concern for decades to come.
Whether that is going to be "hijacked" by the educational establishment with more unionization, standardization, buildings with their concomitant construction costs and consequently larger tax bills or whether there will be policy makers willing to embrace innovation and extraordinary proposals utilizing online learning, vouchers and tax credits for enterprises that provide continuing education to their workers is going to be a defining policy debate in the coming years.
Education is just a microcosm of the problem. Take any issue: public safety, transportation, etc. There are legitimate conservative and libertarianesque policy solutions and proposals for 21st century governmental units. However, instead of bringing forward a positivie agenda for the future that could actually sway a few rational minds in the urban corridor, the GOP is going to fly around touting achievements from a decade ago and make tired old jokes about babies and taxes that originated with the Reagan years.
Norm, you have a powerful
Norm, you have a powerful post here that I have to grudgingly agree with wholeheartedly. I'm probably as partisan as they come, but since the Republicans have made limited government little more than something to snicker at in the paste decade, they are reaping the whirlwind of standing for nothing. I can't say I'm entirely disappointed. I'm disappointed more by the wasted opportunity of having the majority in so many institutions, both statewide and nationwide, and using those majorities for so little.
It is indeed sad that the Virginia GOP is still trumpeting the old victories of the mid 1990s as a reason for their continued existence. As someone who worked in the statewide campaigns of 2001, I felt even then that the statewide GOP candidates were running almost entirely on victories claimed during the period Allen was in the governor's mansion and offering little for the voters as far as future direction for the state.
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