The Pledge to America: 21 Pages of Meh

The Congressional Republicans have released their gameplan for 2011 and beyond in a document called the “Pledge to America”. It’s 21 pages of solidly written and occasionally  inspirational calls to remember the Constitution and the principles on which the nation was founded as well as a bushel basket full of promises they say they’ll keep should we give them control of Congress in November. As an electoral manifesto, it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, but it’s far from the best either.

Among those praising the Pledge are the editorial staff of National Review, Dan Riehl, and John MacCormack of The Weekly Standard. Michelle Malkin is skeptical; Philip Klein is less than excited; and Erick Erickson calls it “Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Thing to Come Out of Washington Since George McClellan”. Those six articles will give you the best sample of what sort of conservative conversation there is on the Pledge. I also recommend the more detailed analyses from Melissa Clouthier and Mary Katharine Ham.

I’ve read through it a couple times myself and I’m not entirely sure whether it’s very good or a little bad. At this point, I’m in with a resounding “Meh”. Certainly, the policies in it will make government smaller and more responsive and will help the economy, but not nearly as much as they could. There are some pretty big matters that aren’t there, such as meaningful reform of the bloated and incompetent DHS; or plans to appreciably shrink the size of government, break the grip public sector unions have on government spending, or do anything more than stabilize the looming twin disasters of Medicare and Social Security. The Pledge nibbles around the edges of some rather large matters and hedges its bets instead of going all-in while the GOP is holding a strong hand.

I do like the section on government accountability, especially the way in which the GOP leadership threw the Democrats’ failed promise to put bills up for review for a time before Congress votes on them. That was a clever move that not only put them on the right side of the voters but also reminded us that the Democrats haven’t made a halfway serious effort to keep the promise. At this point, a little bit of aggression would do the Republicans well. It is, according to every issue poll I’ve seen over the past few months, what most voters want. The more of that we get, the better off we are.

But that leads me to the big problem I have with the Pledge: it’s not nearly aggressive enough. Take a look at this chart (borrowed shamelessly from this very good Ed Driscoll post):

This is the nut of the entire Pledge. As John Hinderaker wrote at PowerLine:

More federal spending means less money, less power, less freedom, less self-control for you. Or else for your children. Less federal spending means more power, freedom and self-control for you and your family, plus a much stronger economy. The Republicans are on the winning side of that argument.

And they certainly are. I am not sure, though, whether a 21-page Pledge focuses the party on that issue well enough (seriously, guys, think bullet points you can put on a post-card). There are a lot of proposals that, at least to my eyes, that take away from that message or don’t push back against the size and scope of government enough to repair the considerable damage done by the Obama administration. Forcing Congress to vote on costly and burdensome regulations, for instance, is a good thing. Getting rid of a truck load of those regulations is much better.

I can’t escape the thought that the Pledge represents a huge missed opportunity. I should be more excited about all the proposals to constrain government, but I’m not, because at this point constraint is only a half measure. The Republican message on limited government power should be as deadly to progressive, big-government politics right now as beating from a brickbat. The Pledge is more like a baseball bat wrapped in foam rubber. It might be enough to get the job done in November, but it won’t send a lasting message.

(many links via memeorandum)

Other Posts of Interest:

• More Committees! More Staffers! More Embarrassing Republican Losses!
• Time to Replace the Redistributionist Republican Leadership
• Can We Just Send the Democratic Leadership Some Shipping Crates Now?

Tags: 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Republicans

Category: Health Care Craziness, The 2012 Horse Race, The Economy and Your Money, The Long War Here At Home, The Republican Minority, The Social Issues