Eric O’Keefe

Mark Tapscott writes that “Noonan is right, the GOP is dying.” Noonan focuses on the GOP standing with Bush even on his frequent departures from conservative principles. But the GOP failure is much broader, and it has deep institutional origins.

Congressional Republicans thought they could entrench themselves in power the way the Democrats had for forty years– by spending lavishly on entitlement programs and pork. They were proved wrong by the 2006 election results.

Now their defeats in three special elections in conservative districts, along with polling results and fundraising efforts suggest they will face another rout this November.

Is that bad for the country? The Democrats promise to tax and spend even more than the Republicans have; they don’t even pretend to respect constitutional limits on the expansion of government.

The plight of voters this November reflects a stunning failure of leadership by the friends of liberty. How can both political parties be so enthusiastic about growing government? What has gone wrong?

The central error has been to rely on a political party as the defender of liberty for long after that was practical. In the 19th century political parties were privately run, and they held the power of nominating candidates; informed citizen leaders controlled the parties, and they worked to keep politicians and governments in check.

Starting with the mislabeled “Progressive Era” a hundred years ago incumbents began to erode the freedom of political parties; today they are mere shadows of the great parties of the 19th century. They are now quasi-governmental entities run by incumbent to expand their power. They offer no check on the power of government; and they are so heavily regulated by government that there is no prospect of reviving them.

The Republican Party collapse improves the long-term prospects for liberty. It means that more people will seek a workable way to protect liberty. No political party can perform the needed functions.

Liberty is in retreat because our political parties are controlled by incumbents in government whose goal is to increase their power over taxpayers.. Only private, voluntary organizations can hope to preserve and promote principles that limit incumbents to their proper roles.

This entry was posted on May 19, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Infrastructure, Political Parties.