In Defense of the Economic National Interest
Amidst the good news this week that President Obama will no longer permit the Bush Administration’s dishonest, ham-fisted practice of submitting Iraq and Afghanistan war expenditures as “emergency” items rather than including them in the federal budget, American workers were dealt a blow on Obama’s previous commitment to renegotiate NAFTA. Americans were presented a watered-down “Buy American” provision in the final stimulus package which falls short of its potential.
Perhaps a short time table is necessary to illustrate exactly why American workers ought to be so very disenchanted:
February 25, 2008: Locked in a heated battle for votes in Rust Belt states hit hard by America’s imprudent trade policy, Obama ratcheted up attacks against Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of the president who served as NAFTA’s top cheerleader for eight years. John Ibbitson of Canada’s The Globe and Mail reported that both Democrat hopefuls began talking tough on NAFTA renegotiation. Specifically, Obama stated “I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage.”
April 23, 2008: The New York Sun reaffirmed that Obama, if elected, would proceed with renegotiating or extricating the nation from NAFTA in order to enhance labor and environmental protections.
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We Could Use a Man Like Bill McKinley Again
Taking the oath of office on March 4, 1897, Ohio native William McKinley inherited a nation facing troubling economic times. The Republican had just bested Nebraska Democrat William Jennings Bryan by an electoral vote margin of 271 to 176, sweeping all states north of the old Mason-Dixon Line and picking up Oregon, California, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana in the process.
According to Cynthia Clark Northrup’s The American Economy: A Historical Encyclopedia, by 1896 over one fourth of America’s railroad tracks were operating under receivership, an estimated 20 percent of workers had lost their jobs, and the young nation was facing the worst economic depression in its short history. Economic strife had set in throughout the land. The labor force was restless, businesses were struggling for survival, and American industry was aching.
Unlike his successor sworn in some 112 years later, McKinley promised not a treasure trove of new spending, one trillion dollars in new debt, or a feeding frenzy of pork barrel politics. Instead, he spoke plainly to the American people about the need to be judicious in determining spending priorities, urgent in the need to prevent the accumulation of debt, and determined to wipe out waste and abuse of public funds.
While President Obama signaled the certainty of priming the pump with neo-New Deal expenditures of the people’s money and increasing the already massive public debt, McKinley wisely warned in his 1897 inaugural address that “The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it goes—not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt—through an adequate income secured by a system of taxation, external or internal, or both.”
While the incoming Obama team has given the green light for proceeding with the House of Representative’s $825 billion “stimulus” package that will drive the American economy further into the doldrums, McKinley warned that “The severest economy must be observed in all public expenditures, and extravagance stopped wherever it is found, and prevented wherever in the future it may be developed.”
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Edwards’ Tome Proposes Rebirth of Principle Following Bush Debacle
By Nathan R. Shrader
Just as Paul Revere rode through the Massachusetts towns of Arlington, Somerville, and Medford in April 1775 sounding the alarm of the British advance towards Lexington, former Congressman Mickey Edwards (R-OK) has issued a powerful, succinct warning about the mounting troubles within our nation’s system of governance. Edwards has also constructed a reasoned, legitimate prescription for how to restore the soul of the conservative movement which once stood guard to defend American liberty, privacy, and freedom.
Published in March 2008 by Oxford University Press, Edwards’ Reclaiming Conservatism: How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost—and How It Can Find Its Way Back first crossed my desk shortly before Thanksgiving, just as pundits and experts were still critiquing the reasons for the continued thrashing of Republicans ranging from the 2006 midterm elections to the defeat of McCain-Palin-style big government internationalism. The timing of my discovery couldn’t have been better.
Dissecting the crisis within the American conservative movement and the Republican Party, Edwards reminds readers that American conservatism is the natural continuation of European liberalism of the likes of John Locke and John Stuart Mill and a rejection of what is known as European conservatism that sought to safeguard the power of the crown. Edwards contends that American conservatives once stood for several basic principles: a focus on individual rights, resisting concentrated power, ensuring that power is not used to advance favored interests, prudence, and most importantly, is a freedom-centered value system.
These principles, contends Edwards, have been lost during the years between Newt Gingrich’s rise to power in Congress and today, replaced with a commitment to blindly advance the goals of the Republican Party rather than holding true to the philosophical goals of freedom, peace, individualism, community, rule of law, justice, restraint, and limited power. In essence, Edwards proposes returning to the key principles championed by the Founding Fathers who sought a clean break from the European style conservatism of old and its ethnic nationalism, powerful executive or monarch, religious fundamentalism, and minimal focus on the individual.
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Political Grind Updates
Hi All,
Just wanted to let all of you know of a recent update to the PoliticalGrind.com site. Most of the updates are back-end updates which will improve usability and speed for our readers and authors. We will have a new design/layout after the new year!
For all our readers - Our comment system was converted back to the Intense Debate system. While we had been a beta tester when the system was initially being developed, it is now much faster and easier to use.
Post any comments/questions in the comments below.
Enjoy!
