In his book, The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future, perhaps the most important public policy manifesto of the Obama era*, Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, spells out the choice facing Americans in the coming election:
This is not the culture war of the 1990s. this is not a fight over guns, abortions, religion, and gays. Nor is it about Republicans versus Democrats. Rather, it is a struggle between two competing visions of America’s future. In one, America will continue to be a unique and exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, increasing income redistribution, and government-controlled corporations. These competing visions are not reconcilable: We must choose.
Clearly, the incumbent President of the United States has chosen the “other” path. And the real question for this fall’s campaign is whether the Republican nominee will be able to make a compelling case for American exceptionalism. On his good days, Newt Gingrich does do that. And from time to time so has Mitt Romney.
Rick Santorum, unfortunately, sometimes get bogged down in the culture war, managing, as Carol Platt Liebau (quite sympathetic to social conservatives) the contraception mandate, “to transform the debate over the HHS regulations from an issue of religious liberty – uniting conservatives, libertarians, and other Americans of good will in opposition to the ObamaCare overreach – into an issue of contraception.” (Via Hugh Hewitt.)
Indeed, many conservatives (& libertarians) have criticized the mandate with arguments nearly identical to those they use to articulate the principles of free enterprise.
We simply cannot lose sight of the stakes in this election. The Republican candidate for President will likely win should he keep the focus on this choice and remain ever aware that the incumbent, his party and the legacy media will be doing all in their party to keep from having this debate.
*The book is short and well worth your time. Interesting to note that Newt wrote the foreward.
Wait a minute.
If freedom of religion and government as religion is NOT a culture war, what the heck is it?
If Obamacare vs. free market medical care is NOT a culture war, what the heck is it?
If following the Constitution vs. free wheeling Constitutional relativism is NOT a culture war, what the heck is it?
If a belief in “American exceptionalism” vs fundamentally transforming America into an unrevealed and unarticulated and unknown America is NOT a culture war, what the heck is it?
Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each and all recognize that this election is entirely about the culture and, therefore, IS a culture war. In fact, it is the political equivalent of the Battle of Armageddon. It is the showdown between “a republic, if you can keep it”* and the antichrist of state socialism in which wealth redistribution and distributive justice and bureaucratic brainiacs decide your fate in ways big and intrusive and nit-pickingly frustrating.
The whole contraception sideshow is an IED planted by the left to be a distraction and it has, to some degree been successful. They were gunning for the religious overreaction and they got Santorum in the trap. Be that as it may. The issue of big government as the arbiter of contraception is still a spot on example of the culture war, NOT an issue of whether contraception is be available and “women’s health” will be in jeopardy.
Finally, “American exceptionalism” is a bogus, squishy, amorphous, eely, gelatinous, silly putty term that has no meaning other than to sound meaningful. (And what, after all, does “meaningful” mean other than to be full of unidentified “meaning.”)
[*] H/T Ben Franklin
Oh? It seems every time Sen. Santorum opens his mouth it’s about abortions, religion or the gays…. And as of next week he may be the presumptive front-runner of the Party.
And what was the last month’s HUGE political battle on the Hill and at the White House? Contraception and pre-natal care in Obamacare and the Catholic Bishops.
Energy, natl. security and responsible fiscal policy should the main talking-points for the campaigns, yet they spend inordinate amounts of time and resources on side-issues like those above….very disappointing, and very dangerous long-term.
Ted B, please re-read the Carol Platt Liebau quote above!
A little change of the subject:
Just got thru reading about the Eisenhower memorial proprosed for the Mall in Washington. Having served for 3 years under General Eisenhower, I HATE IT.
What I mean is I hate what is being planned.Its a little boy running around. It does not show Ike as the Commaner-in-Chief or as President.
I question whether Santorum really doesn’t talk about anything but social issues, or if a thirty second soundbite about social issues is taken out of a two-hour talk and looped endlessly by the MFM to create the impression of a man who talks about nothing else.
Carol Platt Liebau starts off right – “social conservatives may have almost as much to fear from their allies as from their adversaries.” But then she fails when it comes to this: “otherwise defensible positions in a way that alarms and repulses all but the most committed social conservatives, or those with the time and patience to sort through the nuances of his arguments.”
So, if you understand the ‘nuances of his arguments’ you will agree with the social conservatives? I don’t think so. The nuances of his arguments leads me to believe Santorum is either a liar, a hypocrite, or just plain ignorant.
In the Arizona debate, I heard both “religious tolerance” and Santorum suggest that while he talks about social issues, the difference is that he doesn’t create programs for them. What then, is his justification for wanting to reinstate DADT? How is that tolerant? Violating one groups freedom of speech, is not tolerant.
I seem to recall DADT being upheld in the courts, on the grounds that military service was voluntary. Is a Catholic not voluntarily choosing to go into healthcare related occupations? Who is forcing them to go into healthcare, and therefore forcing them to give out contraception?
The problem with social conservatives, IS social conservatives – at least those who don’t actually understand what religious freedom is. Religious freedom means we are both free to choose our religous beliefs, not just the social conservatives, who then want to foist their beliefs on others.
And that brings us to her last point, in which she once again hits the nail on the head.
“In an era when Americans are coming to recognize the dangers of an over-powerful, too-intrusive government, choosing a nominee who seems all-too-willing simply to swap his own (socially conservative) government policies for President Obama’s (left-wing) ones cedes Republicans’ most powerful rallying cry for retaking The White House this fall: It’s all about freedom.”