Why Should Anybody Believe Us Republicans?

As Republicans try to re-group (and, hopefully, to re-identify and re-establish their principles [see here]), one is beginning to hear talk again about limited government and controlling government spending. Obviously, these are traditional Republican principles. Or should I say, these "used to be" traditional Republican principles.

And this is the problem Republicans face as we attempt to re-establish our principles. We have to convince the voters that we will really mean them this time.

Limited government and controlling government spending were, for many years, pretty solid Republican ideas. Voters understood this. Maybe the voters didn’t want them at times, and maybe we didn’t explain them well all the time, but whether we were in power or out, this was something voters understood that Republicans stood for. But then along came the "K Street Project"* and the "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush.

While we never called it that, conservatives have always believed that conservatism is compassionate because we believe that conservatism, done right, helps people more than liberalism does. But the compassionate conservatism of George W. Bush and Karl Rove came to mean not much more than spending money to buy off enough interest groups to get re-elected. Earmarks. Bloated farm bills. Prescription drug benefits for seniors without a way to pay for them. Too often, these programs seemed to be, and were sold to doubting Republicans in Congress as, a way to get re-elected.

Maybe it worked for a little while. But then came incompetence: Katrina; Iraq before Petraeus; the Harriet Miers nomination; etc. And the bills came due, too. By the time 2008 came around, Republicans were left without competence or principles. It is amazing McCain did as well as he did.

Since the election some Republicans have been talking about 1966 and 1994 as examples of how 2010 will be a good year for Republicans. Karl Rove said that in last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal. There may be some truth in that. After two bad elections in a row, a little turnaround would be expected. But are they going to be real Republican victories – or just Democratic losses?

The difficulty in achieving real Republican victories (and why we should be happy with whatever Democratic losses there may be in 2010) is credibility – and our lack of it. As I said above, Republicans used to have it, but we have lost it in the last eight years. It will take some time to get it back, but we have to start.

We have to really follow our principles. If our principles are limited government and low spending, then that is what we have to do. No more "yes" votes on special little (or even not so little) programs to favor this interest group or that. No more unreviewed earmarks. Some earmarks can be useful, but they should be disclosed ahead of time, not hidden away so they can’t be seen.

Rebuilding our credibility is going to take time. It won’t happen overnight. We can’t get mad at people who say they don’t believe us. We just have to say what we mean and mean what we say. We need to state our principles and then follow them.

It is going to take time. But we might as well get started now. The sooner we start, the sooner we will get where we are going.

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* See here for an explanation of the K Street Project.