Posted by
Jim Hunt on Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:00:00 AM
When the recent crisis in the financial sector began, the press and others immediately began to shout that the free market system had failed. John McCain suspended (and lost) his campaign to try to save the world by leading the effort for a $700 BILLION bailout that had to be passed immediately lest the entire economy come to a screeching halt. Here we are, weeks later, less than half of the original amount handed out and yet we are still here. Now the “Big Three” automakers send their corporate bigwigs in their corporate jets to Washington with their hands out saying they just can’t make it without a taxpayer bailout.
Some Republicans have joined the cry and have said that the only answer for the party’s future is to move “to the middle” (read move left) in order to regain strength. They say that we need more government regulation to control the greed on Wall Street and in corporate board rooms. They ignore the fact that these “crises” are directly attributable to government interference in the marketplace.
If the Republicans want to get back in office the formula is simple. Follow the path laid out by Ronald Reagan in 1980 and followed by Newt Gingrich in 1996. John McCain didn’t follow that path and Republicans stayed home in droves. Look at Ohio where Obama got fewer votes than John Kerry did in 2004 but John McCain got over 130,000 fewer votes than George Bush did in ’04. Republicans sat on their hands and we got President-elect Obama.
Americans have shown over and over again that they want candidates who stand for and deliver smaller government. They want candidates who stand for lower taxes (Obama stole that message this year). The Republicans betrayed them by proving that “compassionate conservatism” meant bigger government, more pork, and higher deficits. John McCain was the wrong candidate because he was the ultimate champion of the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). Although he is right on so-called “earmarks”, he is wrong on campaign finance, he was wrong on tax cuts, and he was wrong on the courts.
The press and the Democrats tell us that Americans want “bi-partisanship” what they mean of course is that they want Republicans to agree to what the Democrats want. When Republicans start standing up for the free market, when they again start demanding more freedom rather than less, and less government rather than more; then and only then will they start winning elections again.
The free market works, socialism and centrally controlled markets do not. This has been proven over and over again. It is time to stand up for what is right, it should be easy, because it works.
God Bless America