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The Spineless House GOP

Bill Stuntz:

Burke gave us another set of ideas that seems to have fallen by the wayside in contemporary American politics, and in contemporary American conservatism:  the value of prudence and judgment in public life, and along with those virtues, the merits of republicanism rather than plebiscitary democracy.  Written in 1777, Burke’s letter to his electors at Bristol remains the classic statement of the elected representative’s duty:  to exercise his best judgment--to bring all the knowledge and experience he has to bear on the votes he must cast.  The negative form of the proposition is just as important:  elected representatives must not be mere wet fingers testing the political winds.  Such representation amounts to voting by poll numbers and focus groups.  If that is representative democracy in action, the adjective has disappeared and the noun is doing all the work.  One might as well drop the middleman, and simply vote for legislation by phone-in poll.

Over the course of the last week, House Republicans--allegedly, the keepers of the conservative flame in the federal government--have behaved in a manner that should leave all true Burkeans appalled.

On Monday, the House Republicans killed the bailout/rescue package on some combination of two grounds:  constituent phone calls and letters were running heavily against the package, and Nancy Pelosi’s pre-vote speech suggested that, if it passed, both the package and the crisis to which it responds would be used by Democrats as a club with which to beat Republicans in November’s election.  Apparently, a solid majority of House members believed the package ought to pass, that its passage was, under the circumstances, in the country’s best interest--but given those phone calls and letters, it might not be in the best interest of all those voting “aye.” On Friday, enough of those same conservative Republicans voted for a modified rescue package--this one containing a host of tax breaks (my favorite: the break for manufacturers of wooden arrows, which Charles Krauthammer read out loud on Fox News) and earmarks that had nothing to do with economic rescue and everything to do with winning the favor of assorted members’ more powerful constituents.  From start to finish, the legislative process in this case was as un-conservative, as inattentive to public duty and obligation, as can be imagined.

Yep. Go read the whole thing.