Resuscitation

Last week the Republican Party came back from the dead, which of course shouldn't surprise anyone, since that is what happens as the political pendulum swings every so many years.

I figured that it seemed appropriate for me to resuscitate my blog as the voters of America resuscitated the Republican Party. So after a 7-8 month layoff, here I am.

When I first decided to revive the blog, I thought I might begin by ranting and/or lamenting the fact that Republicans were able to turn obstinacy into gain. But lamenting that does me no good, and as bad as I have found the Republicans to be recently, the strategy of cynicism is not theirs alone, nor is it new to politics. Don't hate the player, hate the game - I hope for more on that topic later.

For now, then, that leaves me with two topics post election-day: what I think the message was; and what I hope Republicans will now do with their majority.

I'll start with the former. The message, I suppose was clear: Obama sucks. It's far past time to defend the president, and whatever the opposition was - and it was both dumb and unfaltering - the president himself wasn't exactly stellar. Far be for me to talk about his legacy at such a premature time, but no doubt voters in 2014 were unimpressed with the president.

But the narrative of whether voters opted FOR Republicans or AGAINST Obama is worth exploring a bit more, particularly because Republicans campaigned not on their plans to govern but almost exclusively, and very explicitly AGAINST Obama. Behind the Republican surge, there were quite a few more forward-looking referendums, and in that, I see a huge sign of progress.

The real wins for America's future last Tuesday were, I think, the minimum wage increases in Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Alaska. As far as I am concerned, a living wage should be a right. It is easily more important to our nation's future than, for example, the right to bear arms, and I was encouraged to see voters simultaneously enact policies themselves via referendum while opting for candidates who still publicly voice support for the debunked and disastrous notion of supply-sided economics.

I don't buy the common political excuse that the messaging just hasn't caught up to the policy. Truthfully, as far as the politics behind it are concerned, the party supporting these ideas is meaningless, and what is far more important than either political party pushing this policy is the fact that the minimum wage votes were referendums. I can only hope this means that the same flawed economic policy that preceded Obama's presidency won't also follow it.

So the election results themselves were more fortuitous - I believe - than the names of the politicians-to-be would have led me to assume.

Just as importantly, what can Republicans do with their new Congressional majorities if they actually dedicate themselves to governing and turn away from the mindless and detrimental zombie-tactics that have defined the party for the last six years?

The five major Republican pushes articulated here are worth considering. I'd like to explore each, one at a time and as a package.

1. Energy - the only concrete issue mentioned here is the Keystone Pipeline which unsurprising. I don't know if Republicans have ideas for energy other than approving the Keystone Pipeline. It'd be great to see them get some momentum around addressing global warming, particularly through an idea like cap-and-trade, which was born in a conservative think tank, but that will necessitate taking on the anti-intellectual base of the party in a way that legislators may be afraid to do. Still, I have and still do support the Keystone Pipeline - if done in an environmentally friendly manner and as a bridge to cleaner and more sustainable energy. While this, I believe, will have nothing like the desired economic effects Republicans predict, it will spur job creation. If coupled with investment in clean energy, this has the potential to be a win, if only a small one.

2. Budget and Spending - my hopes here are low to say the least. I'm all on board with cutting spending and making government more efficient, but I have yet to see a plan that I think achieves those goals. Past budgets have purported to cut spending, but lacked the math to back up that claim. A budget would be nice, but I fear the one Republicans will likely create will lead us to spend more on bombs and less on books. I await with very tepid optimism the first blueprint.

3. Taxes - this deals with an overhaul of the entire tax code rather than simply lowering taxes on the super-rich under the guise of promoting growth. While that would probably be a cornerstone of any Republican plan to overhaul the tax code, it wouldn't be a bad component if the rest of the outline looked good. Simply lowering taxes on the wealthy is an economic plan in need of serious re-evaluation, but the tax code is currently so byzantine and archaic that a full overhaul should be a top priority for everyone. If it is possible to lower rates and close loopholes in a (relatively) revenue neutral manner while simplifying things for everyone, this would really be a huge win and eliminate efficiency in both the public and private sectors.

4. Healthcare - and here we go…still waiting for the predicted disaster of Obamacare to actually develop. Who knows what Republicans will do now that they've spent years calling the law Armageddon without seeing any real signs of the apocalypse materialize? The Affordable Care Act can certainly be improved, and given that Obama's legacy rests upon it, no doubt he'd be a willing partner in trying to strengthen the law, but are Republicans actually interested in strengthening it, or will they double down on the looming-in-perpetuity disaster? Like the budget, this is a realm in which Republicans have long been short on ideas (unless they've been hiding them). I'm curious to see if they actually try to improve healthcare outcomes and contain cost or if they pursue their redacted history in which America died in 2009 because of Obamacare.

5. Trade - I almost feel as thought this was a "throw in" because it should be such a no brainer to agree on free trade deals that I feel as though there is no better reason than "politics" for why more of these agreements haven't already passed. If Obama and Republicans can't come to terms on trade deals then democracy may truly be broken.

On the whole, there are a lot of areas not just for compromise, but for Republican ideas and ideals to propel America forward. Still, the onus for implementing those ideas now fall on a group of people who have spent six years being too immature to try and make them happen for our collective benefit, and instead somehow convinced the nation that their pouting was a reason to let them lead. If Republicans can overhaul the tax code and create budgets based off a sensible new set of laws, then we will all benefit. I'd call that a big IF, however, and I'm far from convinced it can or will happen.

Nevertheless, I'm going to spend at least the next two years, and probably longer, living in a nation lead by a Republican Congress, so I probably ought to hope for the best and use my voice to encourage Republicans to pursue their good ideas that can help us all.

The resuscitation of conservatism brings the revival of this blog. Here's to a good two years for both.