By
Shane Dale
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Courage seems to be in short supply on Capitol Hill these days. Republicans in
Congress - especially the Senate - have been appearing a bit hesitant to speak out for the ideas they believe in. Maybe they're still in a state of shock over the Jim Jeffords situation, but that's really no excuse. House and Senate Democrats have always been better at politics than the GOP, pulling on the heartstrings of their constituents in order to create a more powerful federal government and keep themselves in office. Recently though, it's almost as if Republicans have given up trying to convince people that their way is better.
Instead of simply rejecting the Democrats' plan, the Republicans offer their own, watered-down version, so as not to upset too many people. The Dems propose gun control regulations, the GOP offers a slightly less restrictive version of the bill. The Dems decide they want tighter gas mileage laws on SUVs, the GOP says, "hmm· that's a good idea, but let's tone it down just a bit." And so on. That's not leadership, and it needs to stop.
House and Senate Republicans focus too much on public opinion polls these days. Instead of simply pandering to those who want price caps, less energy production, more social programs and a patient's bill of rights - and damn it, they want it now - they should be out there taking control of the airwaves and educating people on these subjects. They should break down why nationalized healthcare is a bad idea, why price caps are only a quick fix and not a long-term solution and why we can produce energy and protect the environment at the same time.
Instead of using the "because we say so" method of politics, Republicans should try to prevail on people's intelligence. If they would just do so, the people would respond positively, guaranteed. All it takes is one congressman to stick his or her neck out there and have the guts take the first step.
If they want a role model to learn from, they need not look any further than George W. Bush. The man is in control. He knows exactly what he wants to do and finds a way to make it happen. He all but completely ignores public opinion polls, knowing that there's only one poll that counts: the one that elected him.
President Bush wants to lower taxes even further in coming years. He wants to privatize social security. He wants to create a school voucher system. He's not interested in discussing it or mulling it over. He doesn't ask, "should we do this?" but rather, "how can we go about doing this, and how quickly?" It's leadership, personified.
The only thing that's been a little disturbing, however, is some of what was being said at the G-8 Summit a few weeks ago. Apparently, Bush was getting a little soft, at least outwardly, about the proposed Kyoto protocol, the environmental treaty that proposes to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Bush knows full well that Kyoto would hurt our economy from several different directions (and the Senate knows it too, which is why they voted it down 95-0 last year). But he also knows that many Americans - a.k.a. potential voters - and most of Europe are in favor of this treaty.
So instead of simply flat out rejecting Kyoto, he gave way by saying that he would be in favor of some sort of less drastic bill to help prevent global warming. While I realize that compromise and civility is necessary in some cases, this just wasn't one of those times. Hopefully, this wasn't more than just a temporary error in judgment on his part.
Otherwise, Bush has done a great job thus far in implementing the policies he campaigned on. Love him or hate him - and there are plenty of Americans that do both - Bush has done his best to accomplish some monumental tasks in his first six months in office.
Tax refund checks are already on their way. He and Vice President Dick Cheney have already outlined a wide-scale energy policy. He's eliminated foreign funding for abortions and created a department for faith-based initiatives.
In the process, he's outraged NOW and Planned Parenthood, angered Greenpeace, and irritated Western Europe, which means he's doing his job.
The GOP force in Congress would be well advised to play a little game of "follow the leader" at this point. Bush is leading - if they follow, the Democrats will have no choice but to get out of the way.
