The Shape of the Playing Field, Part 3

If such a thing is possible, I participated in a useful discussion on Twitter last night.  The principal participants included my internet radio partner—St. Paul attorney John Gilmore—Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial page editor Scott Gillespie, and former editor and current Southwest Journal columnist David Brauer.

Prompting our conversation was the apparent decision by the Star Tribune to discontinue the weekly Sunday Opinion page “Contributing Columnist” feature, in which non-liberal voices rotated through about once a month.  The feature included columns from conservative author Katherine Kersten, conservative radio talk show host Jason Lewis, and centrist politicians Tim Penny and Tom Horner.
 

The Shape of the Playing Field, Part 2

Returning to the topic I began a couple of months ago, I continue to explore exactly what issues we Republicans and conservatives are allowed to engage in.

Somehow I had missed last month the latest screed of David Schultz, the Hamline University professor and the local media’s favorite “neutral” policy analyst.  The good professor writes about what, exactly, is wrong with the Republican Party,

It is a party that believes that opposing gay rights, reproductive rights, the Violence Against Women’s Act, civil rights, higher minimum wages, and reasonable gun restrictions is not a serious impediment to winning the votes of young people, moderates, people of color, and the poor.

He adds,

They are the party of cranky, greedy old rich folks who seem not to care about anyone else.

I was reminded of Dr. Schultz’s invective when reading a recent column in which Mark Steyn made this observation about the state of the policy debate,

Much of the progressive agenda—on marriage, immigration, and much else—involves not winning the argument but ruling any debate out of bounds.

So, if Republicans and conservatives are not allowed to debate the progressive agenda—as Steyn explains and Schultz demonstrates—than what role are we supposed to serve in the political process?

In a column earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto provides an answer in the course of reviewing the recent work of Time magazine’s Joe Klein on the subject of ObamaCare,

What Klein wishes for is a division of labor in which the two parties would cooperate to make government bigger.  He'd like the Republicans to reinvent themselves as a nonideological party devoted to effective management, which would allow the Democrats to focus on expanding government.  In such a world, Democrats would face no serious resistance to their legislative efforts, and there would be less risk of ObamaCare-style failures because the elephants' job would be to clean up after the donkeys.

I’m all for better and more efficient government.  Republicans and conservative politicians tend to have more private sector and managerial experience than our counterparts and certainly have better relations with private industry and the free enterprise system.  We have much to offer in ideas and energy to make government work better for the people.

In his 2013 State of the State Address, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton issues this challenge,

But it is time to prove that Minnesota’s leaders are capable of more than ideological skirmishes and political stalemates, which offend our state’s citizens and jeopardize our state’s future.

This is our time and our responsibility…to work together and build a state that works.  So, if you’re coming to this State Capitol during the next four months, bring your best ideas and your sincere convictions.  Bring your work boots and your hard hats.

The Governor is interested in hearing your "best ideas" on how to make the progressive state work better.  He is not, however, willing to listen to any ideas ("ideological skirmishes") that challenge the progressive state.

But our role in the political sphere cannot be limited to merely managing the welfare state better than the other guys, or in the words of Irving Kristol, to stand ready to provide “a brief interregnum of conservative government whose function it is to consolidate and ratify liberal reforms.”

For me there are no issues that are out of bounds.  I am contesting every square inch of the playing field.

The Shape of the Playing Field, Part 1

In the wake of last November’s election, both major political parties in Minnesota are trying to figure out what comes next.  The Democrats (DFL, Democrat-Farmer-Labor as they are styled in Minnesota) are enjoying a moment of triumphalism.  Republicans are turning introspective.

Democrats:  Never Been More Powerful

Still fresh from last November’s victory, DFL Chair Ken Martin was re-elected over the weekend to a second two-year term.  He is reported to have said “the party has never been more powerful.”

The DFL Chair is more worried about underperforming than overreaching.

Avoiding "Sherpa Conservatism"

[Prototype for "The Column"]

Over the next few months, in the wake of the recent elections, Republicans and conservatives at every level (national, state, local) will (and should) be engaged in a big rethink of who we are and what we are about.  Clearly, the current approach is not working well enough.

Those on the other side, in an uncharacteristic bout of apparent helpfulness, suggest that Republicans need to return to the halcyon days of the "moderate Republican."  This political creature was quick to compromise and always looking for ways to split the difference.  I'm all for improving the tone and working constructively, but limits need to be set.

Columnist Jonah Goldberg has coined a phrase for this "moderate" approach to politics:  Sherpa Conservatism.  Writing in National Review, Goldberg describes Sherpa Conservatism as follows,

"Good conservatives... should know their place and gladly serve as Sherpas to the great mountaineers of liberalism, pointing out occasional missteps, perhaps suggesting a slight course correction from time to time, but never losing sight of the need for upward 'progress' and happily carrying the extra baggage for progressives in their zealous but heroic quest for the summit."