More GOP Rumblings

A cursory glance at the history of the leadership at the Federal level shows that the American public prefers two-party governance. Periods such as this, where Republicans have the Presidency and enjoy majorities in the House and Senate are very rare, and don't usually last long.

I seem to be surrounded by the scenario. I live in Indiana, which has a Republican governor and GOP majorities in the State House and Senate, and in Hamilton County, which hasn't elected a single Democrat to countywide office in two generations.

My observation has been that while many Republicans talk the limited government, personal responsibility talk, few walk the walk. This morning's scan of news and blog sites show that the trend I see is seen by many others.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame had a lenghty article run yesterday on MSNBC, called, "A Conservative Crack-Up? Reynolds observes:

There's also a lot of contradiction lately. After talking about small
government and the rule of law, Republicans overwhelmingly supported a piece of
legislation intended to influence a single case, that of Terri Schiavo.

and

One may argue that libertarians and small-government conservatives aren't a big
part of Bush's coalition, but his victory wasn't so huge that the Republicans
can surrender very many votes and still expect to win. So this is a real
threat.

Reynolds cites an article by Pejman Yousefzadeh on the alliance between libertarians and small-government conservatives. Yousefzadeh's inclusion of a quote is particularly enlightening:

It is worth noting the comments of one prominent libertarian-conservative
Republican leader on the issue of making common cause between libertarians and
conservatives:

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals -- if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

...

The conservative Republican who said these words was Ronald
Reagan. While his comments are thirty years old, they are still applicable to
the debate we are having. We shouldn't forget them.

Alas.

Because Neal Boortz has found himself opposite the GOP talking points on the Schiavo case, he is discovering the difference between the GOP and LP can be acute, despite travelling the same path. From Neal's Nuze:

Think about this for a moment. Attending physicians conduct their examinations and make their reports. The matter moves into the courts and is adjudicated ... adjudicated extensively. Nineteen state judges, one Federal District Court judge, one Court of Appeals, and three now four trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. Still, politicians aren't happy with the results ... so now the State contemplates using its police power to seize the body of Terri Schiavo so that she can be forced to endure this horrible existence for years to come.

and

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that there are many people out there who,
when faced with medical disaster, want to be turned over to politicians to be
used as political pawns. I'm wondering if these people will be anxious to
keep Republicans in power.

Let's just hope that those disaffected supporters of limited government don't tune out altogether, but find the Libertarian Party- especially here in Indiana and in Hamilton County.

Update: Today on www.townhall.com, Cal Thomas sounds the same note in his article, The Capital Spenders.

Republicans have been in charge of the budget and appropriations process for a decade. They promised things would be different if voters gave them a majority. Newt Gingrich promised an audit to expose the wasteful spending of House Democrats during their 40-year rule.

Sadly, Republicans have been seduced by the love of other people's money and many (there are a few holdouts, but not enough to change much) have succumbed to the same temptations that enveloped big-spending Democrats. Only the "uniforms" have changed. The rules of this game remain the same.