We could all use something solid. Everything from our currency to culture is shifting. Now comes the GOP’s “Commitment to America.” It has a nice ring. What is this Republican vision document, the GOP blueprint for January 2023 through January 2025? For one thing, it is a real, unapologetically patriotic, focused, and genuinely positive plan – something to be for, in a world of hurt and things to be against.
For another, it reaffirms constitutional, economic law-and-order and accountability priorities dating back to Reagan’s time and Republicans’ 1994 “Contract with America,” both highly successful.
The roadmap is about returning to core values – hope, trusting the people, less government, lower taxes, safe streets, sound economy, solid borders, strong defense, no apologies for America.
If that is not enough, it recognizes that parents raise kids, not administrators, unions, or federal overlords. It speaks to respect for institutions like the Supreme Court, First and Second Amendments, the recent Dobbs decision – reversing Roe v. Wade, and checks-and-balances between branches.
To restore confidence, predictability, and prosperity, it sees citizenship as an honor worth preserving, work as a privilege, liberty key to the Republic, and the Bill of Rights as non-negotiable. Speech, worship, self-defense, travel, and being secure in our homes “against unreasonable searches and seizures,” are pivotal.
Specifically, it is built around four “pillars.” These are “an economy that’s strong,” “a nation that’s safe,” “a future that’s built on freedom,” and “a government that’s accountable.” Behind these pillars are flashing facts: inflation at a 40-year high driven by reckless overspending and a clampdown on energy; record murder, carjacking, violent crime, and drug overdose rates – crashing upward; 3.5 million illegal, unassimilated aliens across the southern border; and abuses of power that test our Constitution.
All this is hard to argue, and – in the old days – would not be argued. The race would be to see which party more fully embraced these common goals of energy independence, a secure economy, dollar low inflation, low interest, high employment, lower taxes, lower crime, drug trafficking, and illegal crossings, and greater transparency with no abuse of power, wild-eyed investigations, or unprecedented invasions.
But we are not in the old days, and one wonders – more or less, daily – what days we are in. The Democrat response to this agenda, a set of priorities that would be embraced by Reagan, Bush 41, and most American presidents, including Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy, is to blast it.
The reaction of Speaker Nancy Pelosi – incredibly – is to call these priorities “an extremist agenda.” Really? So, defunding police, disrespecting borders, destroying our credibility overseas, violating the Constitution, canceling citizen’s speech, criminalizing religious services, threatening Supreme Court justices, deriding decisions, pledging to pack the Court, spending 4 trillion dollars Americans do not have on what they do not want, attacking the energy sector, promoting at-birth abortion, crazy genders, and ending Title 9 are all what? Normal?
I guess the reality is this: Americans need to decide what kind of world they want to live in – the sort Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and yes, Donald Trump offered as a baseline, regardless of style differences, or the one Pelosi promotes, with runaway inflation, scary levels of crime, illegality of all kinds, no predictability, stability, safety, honor, respect for taxpayers, limits, or accountability.
For my money, family, vote, and two cents, her world is something Orwell, Huxley, and the great dystopian writers warned about that Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, atheists, and neo-communists admire. That is not the future of America most hope to see, not one to which Americans should willingly commit anything. Not everything in this “Commitment to America” will please every voter, but there is enough for everyone, and a great deal in that document reminds us how we got here and why we need to preserve what we know is proven, honest, stable, constitutional, and good. For my nickel, that is solid.