StrictConstruct

In a recent interview with the press, McCain stated that his victory in a general election was dependent on if he could convince the American public that the war would be worth continuing. If not, he said, he would lose. While he has since backed off this stark assessment, it was a pretty telling statement. It has been almost the only issue he has put time into addressing with any sort of depth in this campaign, at the expense of every traditional conservative issue. John Chapman at the American Enterprise Institute noticed this too, and wrote:

…what is missing from Senator McCain’s message is the one philosophical plank that would propel both him and his party, via linkage to Reagan: genuine antipathy for government. As in 1980, many government programs do not need to be reinvented so much as shut down, but it is telling that in the late campaign not one federal program or department was earmarked for elimination by any Republican candidate except for Ron Paul (although Mr. Huckabee and his FairTax proponents would technically eliminate the IRS, though replace it with an alternative tax regime). This is the core reason for Republican voter apathy and lack of energy on the eve of the 2008 general election season, and it is now a more severe problem for Republicans than the 2006 election cycle.

While all candidates evoked Ronald Reagan’s name and hoped to be perceived as his heir, seemingly none of them outside of Ron Paul actually understood what Reagan stood for. And with the passing of time, it seems that they aren’t the only ones, so here is a key passage from his 1981 inaugural address:

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?

We are a nation that has a government–not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the federal government and those reserved to the states or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.

If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay the price.

It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we’re too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal.

Reagan didn’t run on a platform to bring more wars, or more government. He ran on a platform to reduce the size of government and make it less intrusive in the lives of Americans. This was the essence of what he stood for. Many in the Republican party, however, seem content to sell this out in exchange for being the party of war, and essentially nothing more. And as McCain noted himself, when this is all he stands for, it is the only thing he will be judged on - a good ole case of “ask and ye shall receive.” That is why it is up to those of us who are unwilling to sell out the party to take a stand and work to restore it to its true platform.

(Photo credit to marcn.)