TIA Daily • September 19, 2010

COMMENTARY

"The Tallest Pole in Our Tent"

In looking up some of my old articles on the health care bill for yesterday's edition of TIA Daily, I also came across an amusing Politico article from earlier this year complaining about the "excessive" coverage of the Tea Party movement and arguing that the Tea Parties are not well organized and were having little effect on the primaries.

Boy, does that article not hold up well.

It's pretty well established now that the Tea Parties are an enormous political force and that the phenomenon behind them, a revival and reawakening of the pro-free-market right, is upending American politics.

Even Peggy Noonan is finally starting to get it. Though she ends her column on the Tea Parties by pining for the supposed wisdom and sobriety of the establishment, she identifies one of the key reasons for the current rebellion, with an analogy to a yardstick.

Imagine that over at the 36-inch end you've got pure liberal thinking—more and larger government programs, a bigger government that costs more in the many ways that cost can be calculated. Over at the other end you've got conservative thinking—a government that is growing smaller and less demanding and is less expensive. You assume that when the two major parties are negotiating bills in Washington, they sort of lay down the yardstick and begin negotiations at the 18-inch line. Each party pulls in the direction it wants, and the dominant party moves the government a few inches in their direction.

But if you look at the past half century or so you have to think: How come even when Republicans are in charge, even when they're dominant, government has always gotten larger and more expensive? It's always grown! It's as if something inexorable in our political reality—with those who think in liberal terms dominating the establishment, the media, the academy—has always tilted the starting point in negotiations away from 18 inches, and always toward liberalism, toward the 36-inch point.

Democrats on the Hill or in the White House try to pull it up to 30, Republicans try to pull it back to 25. A deal is struck at 28. Washington Republicans call it victory: "Hey, it coulda been 29!" But regular conservative-minded or Republican voters see yet another loss. They could live with 18. They'd like eight. Instead it's 28.

That's why Republicans in the primaries voted the way they did. They're not looking for just a Republican majority. They're looking for a radical majority that will do the previously unthinkable and actually shrink the size of government. At this point, anything less doesn't seem like a victory.

And we're making progress toward that goal. The latest poll shows the Wisconsin Senate race tilting toward radical Republican (and Ayn Rand fan) Ron Johnson by seven points—unthinkable in a state where Russ Feingold has been a popular incumbent for decades.

And the New York Times reports that the unions are failing to mobilize in support of the left. If you read between the lines, you discover a little secret that the corrupt union leadership doesn't want you to know. A lot of rank-and-file union members are regular blue-collar Americans and vote like it. These are the old "Reagan Democrats," and this year they have swung back to the right.

But as I've been warning, there is still one factor that could split the right and turn us against one another: an attempt by the religious right to coopt the Tea Party movement and use it to push their religious agenda.

This has been emboldened by Glenn Beck's attempt to divert Tea Party fervor into religious channels, especially with his giant tent-revival-style rally in Washington. Now, in another disappointment, congressman Mike Pence—who has been a bit of a hero to the small-government crowd—tells a "Values Voter" group that they "'must demand that leaders of the Republican Party' stand strong on social issues.... Pence, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, urged voters to make sure the party stands strong against abortion rights and in favor of traditional values in an election cycle in which economic issues have driven the narrative."

Meanwhile, this article notes:

Thirty-two percent of registered voters said the economy was their most important issue, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released on Wednesday, and 28 percent said job loss was the most important problem facing the country. By contrast, 1 percent of registered voters said "moral values" was the top problem, and another 1 percent named "religious values" as the top problem.

After all, in attempting to understand the roots of the recent crisis, what book have people been rediscovering? Hint: it ain't the Bible.

The good news is that Pence is not speaking for everyone. Here's what another major new Republican star, Paul Ryan, told The Hill:

The top Budget Republican also urged his party to rally around economic issues in order to win back Congress. Conservatives, Ryan asserted, would have to "agree to disagree" on social issues.

"We will agree to disagree on those issues," he said. "But let's rally around the tallest pole in our tent: fiscal conservatism, economic liberty."

This is sound advice, both ideologically and politically. The religious agenda has long been described as a "wedge" issue used by the right against the left, the idea being that it divides the Democrats by peeling off some supporters who would otherwise vote with the far left. But I think what we're discovering is that religion is also a wedge issue within the right—that it drives away voters who would otherwise support a party that stands for smaller government and more economic liberty.

I think we can get a 60% majority in this country for smaller government, especially now. It would be a shame to throw that away for the sake of the 2% minority—according to the poll cited above—that is willing to sacrifice economic liberty for a religious agenda.

The stakes right now are too important, and the goal of rolling back big government is too difficult. We need to stay focused and keep our coalition together. We're doing that right now precisely because we've declared a de facto truce on the religious issues. So that's what we should keep on doing.—RWT

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