Three Strikes and GOP is Out (4/16/02)
by Dean Hartwell
As the deadline for
residents of the United States to pay income taxes came and went, President
Bush began a push to make his tax cuts permanent. Instead of expiring in 2010,
the reductions will continue past that year if Congress votes for them in the
coming weeks.
Bush said he wanted Congress to eliminate a "quirk in the law" known
as a "sunset" that causes some laws to end on a certain date.
Undoubtedly, Bush also wants to keep the main theme from his campaign in 2000.
Maybe he wants to build a legacy for future generations as well.
Whatever his reasons, President Bush should take a look a history before
continuing with the idea of permanent tax cuts.
For years, the Republican Party has been known for its rhetoric in opposing
Communism, taxes and crime. Coming up with a permanent solution means giving up
the use of that issue.
For example, after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the former states of the
Soviet Union got their independence and formed non-communist governments, the
public perceived that communism was no longer an issue. When President Bush's
father ran for re-election in 1992, his suggestions that opponent Bill Clinton
traveled to Moscow as a young man to conspire in a communist plot, the public
paid little attention. Furthermore, the elder Bush could not use the fear of
communism to attack Democratic proposals to scale down the military as he had
done successfully in 1988.
In his new book, Blinded by the Right, ex-conservative journalist David
Brock points out another consequence of the Republicans losing the issue of
communism: they turned to other issues, which proved to be a disaster. Brock
says that a new, fervently religious group in the Republican Party targeted
gays and non-Christians, among others, for verbal attacks. Patrick Buchanan's
call for a "cultural war" at the 1992 GOP Convention cost the
Republicans a chance to use their convention to catch Clinton in the polls.
If Bush loses the tax issue, all that will remain in the Republican arsenal is
opposition to crime. By then, perhaps they stop focusing upon the negative
parts of our society and tell us more about what they are for.