Conservatives should just say ‘no’ to GOP’s ‘New America’

As President Obama exploits the ongoing financial crisis in an effort to socialize America (government-owned banks and industry, nationalized health care and centrally-planned energy and economic policy) as much as possible before anyone can do anything about it, you might think that Republican politicians would be focused on combating the destruction of the American way of life and our standard of living.

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Instead, the GOP’s leaders have gathered together their most well-known clucking hens and presidential candidate rejects to tell conservatives that they need to abandon cherished and time-tested principles in favor of a new set of values — let’s call it Obama-lite with details to come. The so-called “National Council for a New America” was announced by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) on April 30. The “council” part of NCNA appears to be led by the very Capitol Hill Republicans who have served the rest of us so ineffectively-to-disastrously that we are now at the mercy of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid hydra. These Keystone Cop legislators include: Reps. John Boehner, Cantor, Mike Pence, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, John Carter, Pete Sessions, David Dreier, Kevin McCarthy, and Roy Blunt; and Sens. Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, Lamar Alexander, John Cornyn, and John Thune. While Rep. Pence and Sen. Cornyn are good conservatives, in the context of NCNA, they are little more than window dressing or “beards.” The NCNA has a platform that differs from the hydras only in that it is the lite version of “leave no government program behind.” Though the NCNAs couldn’t defeat Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, perhaps two of the most unpopular Congressional leaders ever, or Barack Obama, the least-experienced-and-most-socialist major party presidential candidate of all time, they think they’re up to fixing the economy, healthcare, education, energy, and national security through more government. Let’s look at what NCNA says about energy, one of this blog’s main issues:

American families and businesses cannot afford an energy policy where we are held hostage by foreign oil cartels and dictators. As a nation, we can no longer send billions of dollars overseas each year, often to countries that help fund our enemies. We must implement a comprehensive energy policy that includes traditional fuels, alternative energy, and conservation resulting in affordable, reliable domestic energy. Such a policy will stabilize costs for families and businesses while at the same time creating much-needed jobs here at home.

If the NCNAs knew anything about energy they’d know that we’re not being held hostage by “foreign oil cartels and dictators” — we’re being held hostage by domestic rent-seeking energy cartels and green dictators. We don’t need a “comprehensive policy” that interferes destructively with free markets. Rather, we need open energy markets that are able to choose workable energy solutions and deliver them at competitive prices. Free market prosperity creates good jobs — pork-barreling congressmen create non-productve bureaucracy. We don’t send money to fund our enemies. We buy oil on the open market. It’s called trade. BTW, our “enemies” will get our money anyway — through Chinese oil purchases. NCNA is sending out a “national panel of experts” on a listening tour of the nation. On the panel are former presidential candidates Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney, and potential future presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal. While Gov. Barbour is a good conservative caught in a bad organization, Bush and Jindal leave much to be desired. Although Rep. Cantor told the Washington Times that

“The Republican Party is founded on some common-sense conservative principles that are as effective today as they’ve always been. We just need to make sure we’re listening to the people,”

“Expert panelist” Jeb Bush told the Times,

… that it’s time for the Republican Party to give up its “nostalgia” for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.

And what would strategy that be, Jeb? Having John McCain win the Democratic presidential nomination? Oh and thanks, Jeb, for working to block oil drilling off the Florida coast. How’s that going to get us out of the grip of OPEC and oil dictators like Hugo Chavez? Speaking of McCain, let’s not forget that he was one of the early Republican proponents of global warming alarmism. Remember McCain-Lieberman? McCain thinks that the worst tha can happen by going green is that we’ll leave future generations a cleaner planet. Sorry, John, if the greens run the world, we’ll all be poorer and the planet will be dirtier. I almost lost my dinner at the March National Republican Congressional Committee soiree when keynote speaker Jindal spoke rapturously of reaching the nirvana of green energy or some such nonsense. It’s not surprising that Jindal and the NCNA members don’t know what they’re talking about — none have ever been leaders on energy issues. Rather than forgetting about Ronald Reagan, we need to remember his fervent anti-communism now more than ever. The hydra has already hung the sharp left. We need someone who can grab the wheel and make a U-turn.

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