If the woman or man you love rebuffs you several times in spectacular fashion and explains to you in exhaustive detail just what it is he or she disdains, do you double down on those features? If the graduate school you have spent the last four years preparing for rejects your application but recommends that a few years of job experience might make you a better candidate, do you work at getting the experience, or do you fire off another application, this time emphasizing the very lack of experience they decried? If you’re a political party whose spectacular electoral defeats have sent a clear message that there is little tolerance for your ideology, do you double down on your failed ideology?
If you’re the Republican Party, the answer is yes.
The future of the Republican Party has been on display for the past week. And, my, what disservice to America it will be.
Tuesday night was cast as a “coming out party” for Republican Louisiana Governor and probable 2012 presidential candidate Bobby Jindal. His response to President Obama’s address to congress was supposed to be a poignant and rousing repudiation of the Big Government ideology of the Obama administration. Instead, the so-called future of the Republican Party came across as some highly laughable cross between Sesame Street’s Big Bird and my kindergarten teacher. Further, the irony that a man whose most important and populous city — New Orleans — is currently being rebuilt by the federal government would so anachronistically decry the role that President Obama has put the federal government into was much too apparent.
I couldn’t help but think: If this is the future of the Republican Party, bring back Sarah Palin. At least she can give a rousing speech, and make me laugh instead of cringe in embarrassment. At least she acts like a leader, not a babysitter.
I admit to a measure of excitement about Gov. Jindal that may be the source of my considerable disappointment. Not only did he sound like a man who cannot lead a nation in the face of unprecedented challenge, his ideas defied reality and embraced conservative ideas over pragmatism and solutions.
Republicans have a powerful message when they remind the nation of the potency and reward inherent in American free market enterprise. An enabled and robust private sector is the key to America’s considerable economic standing. But the free market lies in ruins. Republicans rage against its rebuilding, insisting its rubble will suffice.
Even more emblematic of the Republican Party’s issues was this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Committee. CPAC boasted great conservative and Republican minds like Mitt “Mittens” Romney, Mike “I’m okay with Confederate flags” Huckabee, and Rush “Doesn’t require a nickname, he’s just that bad of a human being” Limbaugh. It also hosted a few Republicans I respect for their ability to see the political middle, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and personal favorites like Wisconsin’s own Rep. Paul Ryan. In sum, however, the conference was a sad and discouraging microcosm for the macrocosm that is the ideology of the Republican Party.
The conference, whose agenda boasted such events as “Al Franken and ACORN: How Liberals are Destroying the American Election System,” put on display the Republican Party’s insistence on staying the course — on doubling down on a failed ideology.
I can’t help but wonder at the logic of conservatives who claim that the reason our nation voted for an unabashed big government liberal is because Republicans simply weren’t unabashed small government conservative enough. Huh? Isn’t that like saying the reason you didn’t get a date to prom is because you weren’t ugly and rude enough?
Two months ago, this page and other editorial pages on far more respected papers claimed that the Republican Party should look at itself in the mirror, and realize it had a big chunk of broccoli in its teeth while it was interviewing for that job. Further, its fly was down. However, instead of a quick mouth rinse and zip up, the Republican Party is trying its best to point out that, yes, indeed, that is broccoli in its teeth, and, yes, it is indeed wearing tighty whiteys.
The Republican party is clinging to the belief that its recent string of electoral and ideological defeats is not due to their ideology, but due to their failure to clearly communicate it. Or as an aptly named seminar on CPAC’s agenda claims “The Key to Victory? Listen to Conservatives.”
Two months ago this column urged the Republican Party to adjust its course. America is better served when its two-party system has two relevant and effective parties. At the moment, half of our vaunted political system is suffering serious ideological wounds. And in a failed attempt at reviving themselves, they’ve decided that bloodletting is the most effective treatment.
Gerald Cox ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics.
