Purity or Compromise

Elections are fast approaching. Everyone agrees that this could be one of the most significant mid-term elections in a long time. The voters will either sweep Washington clean or approve the new course President Obama is setting for the nation by leaving incumbents in their seats. Personally I hope it is a clean sweep; however, it would be very easy for conservatives to lose this election if we don't play our cards right. Of course that's the problem conservatives have right now. Many are uncertain which card they should take.

For example, if one listens to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin, Obama and his crew are essentially Marxists. They are boldly molding our nation into European socialist utopia concurrently diminishing the nation's economy and deliberately limiting our military's ability to project American power around the world. A new global government is waiting in the wings and Obama is preparing our nation to enter into that new world order.

On the other hand, Michael Medved and other center right commentators steer deliberately clear from accusing the current administration of Marxism, socialism and other "conspiracies." Instead they talk of Obama as simply a big government guy, or a guy that doesn't understand the economy. He is attacked on points of wrong headed policy rather than going so far as to accuse him of some grander and more destructive scheme.

Personally I'm in the Limbaugh Beck wing in terms of my analysis of the Obama administration objectives. I've seen too much evidence of a deliberate radical agenda to think otherwise. That being said, Medved and his ilk have a point. Thirty to forty percent of the country are not ideologues. Politics is not something in which they have a lot of interest except at election times. These middle of the road folks usually are politically agnostic but usually display a lot of common sense. Radical positions on either side of the spectrum scare them off. Right now they are most concerned about big government actions and policies from the left that are not doing anything positive for the economy. I think the Medved camp may be right that calling Obama a Marxist turns the folks in the middle off. It scares them that conservatives will swing too far to the right. In short, we lose those folks if we are too strident in our attacks on the left.

Still I have sympathy for the purists. What good does it do to elect a RINO if his or her progressive policies are not much different from those of the left. What's the point?

But then I stop and realize that politics is the art of the possible. It is coalition building. It is incrementalism. And yes, it is often compromise. As much as I would like to strive for doctrinal purity among conservative candidates; in the end we have to build a center-right big tent coalition if we are going to prevail in the long run. If we had a parliamentary system instead of a two party system, we could achieve more intellectual and doctrinal purity within our parties. But with a two party system compromise is the name of the game...darn it.

Guns and Butter

Last month I was driving past Boeing field on I-5. As I was admiring the aircraft collection that could be seen from the freeway (yes I was still paying attention to the road) I noticed the Concorde sitting on the tarmac. It suddenly occurred to me that an era had passed in that we no longer had a supersonic airliner available to serve the public. The 1990's remake of the Parent Trap in which father and daughter leave California and were able to beat the English side of the family home, via a Concorde flight, was no longer possible.

Around the same time that my musings on the Concorde were taking place, I learned that the Obama administration was cancelling the Orion and Constellation space program that was to have put our astronauts back on the moon in 10 years. Ostensibly this decision was made due to cost overruns and other technical problems.

What I can't help feeling, however, is this nagging feeling that the nation and the world (in the case of the Concorde) is drifting backwards in terms of its technological capability. Once the shuttle fleet is mothballed we no longer have a manned space flight capability. We will be relying on the Russians to take us to the space station. While the Chinese and Indians are advancing their space programs we are going backwards.

Clearly the Obama administration is focused on its domestic agenda. Foreign policy and more particularly the projection of American power in the world is distasteful to this administration. Along the same lines, I can't help but feel that the the pride most of us have felt from our successes in space, make the President and his associates uncomfortable.

I hope I am wrong in my assessment. Perhaps the Constellation program was simply so flawed that it didn't make economic sense. However, to cancel the program and not have a viable alternative up and running was at best short sighted. At worst it was a reflection of an administration that despises any trappings of American exceptionalism.

This seems to be a consistent pattern for this president. His domestic policies, whether health care or cap and trade are not designed to grow the economy but rather weaken it. I've heard some suspect that the president is ignorant of economic theory. I don't subscribe to that notion and instead see the president's last 14 months in office as a mad dash to dismantle the nation's ability to sustain its superpower status.

Unfortunately for us, the President's apparent hatred of what we are as a nation diminishes us and our technology. The President is currently flush with victory on the health care front but where is he otherwise leading us as a nation? Clearly not to the moon or Mars.

Is this how the Romans felt as they noticed their society and technology slipping away as internal political struggles and invasion robbed them of their unique place in the world? When would you liked to have lived, 3rd Century Rome or 8th century Europe? I know which time I'd choose.

A great nation should be able to accomplish its rational domestic goals and still put people on the moon. Shame on the current administration for "forgetting" that.

This nation is still capable of producing guns and butter simultaneously. At the rate we are going, I'm not sure how long that is going to last.