Astute Conviction Politicians

There's a Time to Hold, and a Time to Fold

A sage has observed astutely that politics is the art of the possible.  The torrid debate in the US over the debt ceiling and government spending, and the resulting compromise, has been an object lesson in politics.  The outcome has satisfied no-one.  Probably that means the result was about right--politically speaking.

At the level of fundamental truth and principle the recent US debt deal needs to be rejected completely.  It is simply not a solution at all.
  Government deficit spending, funded by debt, showering bribes on a self-important, entitled, narcissistic, and generation is utterly wrong and corrupt.  It cannot be sustained.  It will end in the self-immolating collapse of every nation, the US included.  And that self-immolation will come far faster than many people now realise. 

In terms of rectifying the problem the debt deal was not a beginning, nor was it an end--but it may turn out to be the beginning of the end of US national indebtedness.  It all depends on how conservatives react and move on.  If it galvanizes them into even greater political engagement then it will like prove to be the beginning of a long term solution to the problem of government profligacy.  If it sours conservatives into dropping out in a "what's the use?" response, then the downstream effect will be calamitous.

A lot will depend on the outcome of the 2012 election and the convictions of newly elected senators.  It will depend on whether Obama is defeated and the Republican candidate is a small government fiscal conservative by conviction, or by fair weather. ("Big government, compassionate conservative" Republicans have been as disastrous at Democrats in the past.  Obama, however,  has leapfrogged the lot and turbo-charged  profligate national spending and indebtedness.  He has been an alcoholic in charge of a brewery.)

The continuing and increased engagement of people with deep small government convictions in the political process at the grass roots is absolutely critical to achieving a political solution to the debt crisis going forward.  The true-blue, conviction conservatives must stay engaged and be in the fight for the long haul.  To succeed disgust over the ways of Washington must not translate into disengagement from the political struggle.  
Conviction voters and politicians can be their own worst enemy.  An "all-or-nothing" mentality can greatly damage a righteous cause.  One of the most salutary lessons from US history illustrates this.  John Quincy Adams was a committed anti-slavery politician.  Every year he would introduce a Bill in the Congress to make it illegal in all states for the children born to slaves to be themselves enslaved.  Since the importation of slaves had ceased years before, Adams argued that his Bill would mean that slavery would gradually expire and would cease completely in the US within a generation.

Every year his Bill was defeated.  The strongest opposition came from abolitionist zealots who kept voting it down on the grounds that Adams's bill tolerated slavery and was not sufficiently abolitionist.  It did not go far enough.  Their "all-or-nothing" non-compromising zealotry led eventually to the horror of the Civil War and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of souls. 

The only kind of conviction politician that should be supported is the one who is willing to compromise to enable the next step to be taken, but who never compromises on the fight or struggle to achieve the ultimate, end objective.  The worst kind of "small government" politician is the one who tells his electorate of his deep small government convictions only to go to Parliament or Congress and spend all his career "going with the flow".  Such politicians are to be despised.  They definitely need to be voted out of office and replaced. 

One of the most impressive things about the new Tea Party congressmen is that most appear to have this sorted out.  They dug their heels in on the debt ceiling debate.  They pushed the debate and the outcome in the right direction, without getting all that they wanted--and need to get over time.  They do not appear to have disengaged as a result.  They seem eager for the next step, the next debate, the next battle.  As a result the Republican Party in the Congress now seems to be morphing into a genuine, conviction small government caucus.

It is a most encouraging development.  But, as we argue above, the forthcoming 2012 elections will be a critical waypoint--for good or evil.  We watch developments with interest.