Bwana: On Ken Cuccinelli and Compromise
Bwana has a few questions for the much-esteemed Senator, most of which have their genesis in this analysis:Senator C. thinks the GOP has a choice between taking a stand or compromising. I suggest there is not a need to compromise, but there is a need for the RPV to create and articulate a vision for Virginia, show how the various positions fit that vision, and how that vision will benefit the state.
Senator Cuccinelli (who will hereafter be referred to as "The Cooch", just so I don’t have to type the whole title and name... consider it a liberty that constituents can take) apparently believes the positions he supports are so clearly obvious and superior there is no need to explain them. Well, that ain’t necessarily so. Michael Golden and all the Club for Growth folks chose that course last year, and no one who was not already in the General Assembly won in the general election. Now this is an interesting spin on the "compromise/vision" argument. Previously you had two camps -- those who say stand on principle, and those who argue that compromise moves the ball down the field.
In the past, the refutation of the compromise position was relatively easy: you have to have a position first before you can go into negotiations. If not, then you're just getting molested by the side that knows what it wants. Negotiation 101.
In the 102 class, we learn about the third way of "vision", that all too-androgynous word that asks "what are we going to do?"
Cart first, then horse.
Without articulating what we clearly stand for, there is no sense in arguing about vision. We could make the argument that we can run government better, but to what ends? The problem with arguing about vision at this point is that for all its warts and bumps, the Republican Party of Virginia doesn't know what it stands for as a collective.
That's a problem. A huge problem. The idea of vision never answers the question quo vadis?, where are you going?
Bwana raises a few questions, mostly in the direction of the No New Taxes crowd (of whom I freely associate myself).He needs to explain why no new taxes are needed, and not write it off to “we already pay too much”. The answer is simple: in 2000 we had a budget of $30 billion that Republicans criticized as "big government."
Who ran that government? Democrats.
Whom did we blame? Democrats.
Whom did we criticize? Democrats.
Today government is twice that size and provides the same services. Whom do voters have to blame?
Not the Democrats.Answer the questions “why we are paying too much?”, “where is money being wasted?”, “What economies can be realized?”, “What cuts should be made?”. Because Republicans lost their moorings, the Wilder Commission identified areas of waste to the tune of $1.5 billion in 2004, "economies to be realized" is rather odd, and to argue that this government is "just the right size" when it is twice the size of a Democratic-led General Assembly means I get to reconsider being a Republican.
What's worse is the "government first" perspective. Republicans have never approached the issue of government and taxes as a government-first equation. We have consistently (until 2004) approached our problems from a families-first equation.
This isn't difficult. Within the current budget, how would he fix transportation? I can't answer this question for him, but I would flip the question around: What problems at VDOT are going to be solved with more tax dollars? For what projects? Where?
Until taxpayers get that answer, why should we raise taxes?Finally, show how these positions fit into a vision or view of the future of the Commonwealth. Families first, not government first.
There's your conservative vision for Virginia. Many, many organizations have spearheaded initiatives to make that vision work. The Freedom and Prosperity Agenda is one such solution that has been granted mere lip-service. But it's a vision rooted in principle, which makes some who are not conservatives blanche at the idea.
FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY AGENDA:
1. Pass a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights
2. Rein in skyrocketing real estate taxes by basing them on the acquisition value of property
3. Eliminate the car tax
4. Eliminate Virginia’s death tax
5. Strictly limit the public uses for which private property may be confiscated from private citizens
6. Allow parental choice in education
7. Create freedom and fiscal accountability for Virginia’s public colleges and universities
8. Protect Transportation Trust Fund money from being used for any other purpose
9. Eliminate the War of 1812 tax (BPOL tax)
10. Require expiration dates for all new taxes and all tax increases
11. Eliminate the prepayment of the sales and use tax
That's a vision that deserves support, and one that not many people are aware is floating around. Now the question that needs to be raised is very simple: how do the priorities of government rise above these priorities that are clearly rooted in helping families, small businesses, and individuals?
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Bwana 
2 Comments:
Got your note...and I agree that conversation is good. I also tend to think we recognize the same problem, but we are coming at if from differnt points of the compass...
http://renaissanceruminations.wordpress.com/2006/12/07/a-conversation-with-shaun/
Mentally Ill Gay Gun Owners in support of the election of Ken
Cuccinelli.
Would anyone else like to join me in my support of Kenny?
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