Politics Without Principle

In our political debate, we like to use terms like “liberal” and “conservative” to describe the views of individuals, groups, legislation, judicial decisions, etc. Our two parties, Democratic and Republican, are thought to stand for certain ideas, values, and beliefs, rooted in some kind of principle—a foundational philosophy that serves as the wellspring for all other ideas.
For example, people would probably say that this blog is liberal. The writer is a Democrat. Rachel Maddow is liberal. She is a Democrat. Rush Limbaugh is conservative. He is a Republican. For most of America, this labeling makes sense, and in our country, there has always been a place for both conservatives and liberals, for Republicans and Democrats…and their principles.
As a person who follows politics fairly closely, I’ve noticed something recently—especially given my zeal in eviscerating Republican talking points. First, consider these recent Republican positions on specific issues: adamant that the federal debt needs to be dramatically reduced, voted for privatizing Medicare into a voucher system, voted for the Paul Ryan budget that contained massive tax cuts, refused to approve a nuclear treaty or extend unemployment until Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts, refused to allow a tax increase on millionaires, refused to end billions in subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies, virulently opposed to the Affordable Care Act which is projected to reduce the federal deficit, opposed to the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, refused to approve a war powers resolution to allow action against Libya to go forward.
What is so strange about this list? Well, for one thing, just about every position is 180 degrees from that of President Obama. But it is only context that tells us that. However, if an alien were to read this list of Republican positions 3,000 years from now, the very simple truth they would conclude is that there is almost nothing tying these positions together—there is no simple, underlying philosophy that can explain these positions.
In this sense, the modern Republican Party has committed one of the great human sins: politics without principle. Conservatives simply do not adhere to any real set of political values anymore; instead, they choose the route that is most politically expedient, and run with it.
Even consider their most championed cause: tax cuts. What is their position, as we all know? Cut taxes no matter what. But wait, what about the deficit? That issue has been foisted upon us with about as much grace as a 16 year old boy begging his girlfriend for sex. The deficit is an urgent, terrifying problem, we’re told. If we don’t fix it, we’ll become Greece, we’ll become Spain, we’ll become Japan! And because the deficit is such an awful problem, we should…cut taxes?
Surprisingly, that is exactly their answer. Paul Ryan’s budget, voted for by every Republican in the House, contained huge tax cuts. And look at every presidential candidate—they all want to cut taxes! So on the one hand, we are told that we have a very serious deficit problem, and on the other, we are told that the answer is to cut the primary source of revenue, or credit, for the government.
Now, some of you might be saying, “well, they always do believe in cutting taxes—they do that no matter what. Isn’t that principled?” No, it is not principled. A principle is a belief in a higher purpose, a balanced position based on reason and logic. The dictionary defines a principle as: “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.”
In this sense, a principle involves more than just a directional policy, such as cutting taxes. A person could say they believe in very low taxes, but if we are to take the Republicans seriously, they seem to believe in having no taxes, which amounts to believing in anarchy, since any government must have some source of revenue to operate. Moreover, it is absurd to argue for both cutting the deficit and taxes—these are mutually exclusive ideas. A principled position would either say that it is more important to cut taxes, or that it is more important to pay down the deficit, depending on that person’s beliefs about the role of government. Thus, the Republican position of believing in tax cuts in perpetuity is absent of principle. Instead, it is something they put out as a major plank in their platform because tax cuts are popular.
Worse is their most hallowed position: opposition to abortion, or pro life. We are told, by Republicans, that abortion is murder, that the fetus is a human being and has the right to live, regardless of the mother’s, or family’s wishes. One would assume then, that Republicans care deeply about human beings, that they would be stalwart supporters of schools, health care, and programs like WIC, that provide support for women and their children. But this is not the case. Republicans recently have fought to make huge cuts to schools, have aggressively opposed health care reform, have made deals and are currently attempting to make more that would cut funding for WIC and other programs. At every turn, Republicans oppose having a social safety net that helps people survive, whether it is unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, etc. So while they want the government to be involved in deciding whether or not abortions can take place, they don’t want the government to be involved in helping at-risk people survive—a clear lack of principle.
It is precisely this lack of principle that is going to kill them in the 2012 election. How is Romney going to attack Obama for his health care plan when he passed its predecessor while he was governor in Massachusetts? How are Republicans going to argue for more tax cuts when they’ve spent every second between 2010 and 2012 howling about the deficit? How are they going to argue they value education when Republican governors everywhere have been busting unions and forcing massive cuts to teacher salaries and education budgets? How are they going to say on the one hand that they are opposed to ousting Gaddafi, and on the other, argue that it is important to keep troops in Afghanistan?
The only way they get away from these issues is if this concept is absent from the debate. From now on the Democrats need only one message: Republicans are a party without principle. As such, they are unfit to govern a country built on one: We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.