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Lessons For Conservatives

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By JOHN REINIERS, More Than Words

Hernando Today

Published: November 12, 2008

Updated: 11/12/2008 05:33 pm

This thought occurred to me after the election: Conservatives should not fall into the "negative abyss" that Democrats have been in since 1994. Their hate and mean-spiritedness had reached such a crescendo, one has to wonder what they will do to vent their rage now that Barack Obama has the job.
The point is that conservatives now have an opportunity to applaud Democratic proposals when they make sense, rather than emulating that worn out "failed policies of George Bush" attitude that became so wearisome over the years; and before that, the attacks on the Republicans' "Contract with America" while President Bill Clinton was in his second term.
This approach should be relatively easy for Republicans given their commitment to capitalism with its job creating business sector, rather than Democratic socialism with its plethora of well-paying government jobs; and their unalloyed "My country right or wrong" kind of patriotism, rather than blaming America first, as the United Nations, Europeans and liberals are wont to do. In other words being positive about our economic system and our country is not a stretch for a conservative regardless of which party is in power.
Economics is the hot button issue du jour, and Obama has some well known heavyweights in his corner as advisers, including Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, everyone's favorite billionaire, whom Obama describes as "one of my favorite people;" Paul Volcker, former Fed chairman, who broke the back of the double-digit rampant inflation of the 1970s and 1980s; and Larry Summers, former Secretary of Treasury under Bill Clinton (1999-01), who was later pilloried by the ultra-liberal wing of Harvard University before resigning in disgust as its university president. None of these men is a liberal bomb thrower, and all are respected in financial circles. In some respects these are not the advisers one would expect Obama to have, given his exceptionally liberal record. (And his mother was a socialist, as is his former mentor of 20 years, the infamous racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright.)
Likewise, lesser luminaries as advisers include Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and in this role, has a close professional relationship with Ben Bernake, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. He is not considered a partisan and has considerable experience in the Treasury Department where he worked for five different Treasury secretaries in three administrations. Although not an economist, he has all sorts of experience in monetary and fiscal matters. He is well respected and could be the next Treasury secretary.
Then there is Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist. Let's stop here. Obama was an instructor of law at Chicago, so he had some linkage to other departments in the university. The "Chicago School" of economics was established by the conservative Milton Friedman, the most prominent proponent of free markets, the money supply rule, and individual freedom — not something one would associate with a liberal Democrat. (He also believed that teacher's unions are responsible for the state of education today.) In spite of his connection to this school of economics, Goolsbee counseled Obama to reject the free-market orthodoxy of the Chicago school of economics and to raise taxes on capital gains.
Yet there is Jason Furman, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who ran Obama's economics team, an associate of former U.S. Treasury secretary Robert Rubin and a centrist who is a backer of free trade and fiscal discipline.
The point is that Obama has a mixed bag of advisers, but all have experience. And since Obama himself admitted that he is a "blank slate" — in other words he really had no credentials for the job — there is reason for hope, that at least as to his economics team, he may benefit by on-the-job training by a stable of experts. And he will be assuming the presidency during one of the most dramatic global economic crises in modern history, in part brought on by the ill-conceived policies of the Democrats over the decades to promote home ownership for those who could not afford it, and the crooks on Wall Street who elevated leveraged bundled anonymous securities to an art form.
And not to make short shrift of Iraq and the Department of Defense, but some Democrats believe Robert Gates is doing a yeoman's job as Secretary of Defense and that Obama is leaning toward having him continue in the job to make for a smoother transition. Given that Obama went from a drum beat of immediate withdrawal from Iraq to placate his extreme left, such as MoveOn.org, and is now somewhat in sync with the Bush strategy, this is a step forward — which will surely anger his left wing.
Are these signals that Obama will govern from the middle? This will be tough with Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader, and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House — both representing the left wing of the Democratic party.
The economy and Iraq are the two hot button issues for our country, with the latter offering short-term problems but the potential for long-term positive outcomes in the Middle East. Conservative Republicans do not want Obama's administration to fail, whereas there is little doubt that Democrats and the media wanted the Bush administration to fail in anything rather than have the U.S. be successful. In fact both Reid and Pelosi labeled the surge in Iraq a failure even before it was implemented by General David Petraeus. (Or as MoveOn.org said, "General betray us.")
Robert E. Lee said: "True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another." That is a lesson for all of us.

John Reiniers, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill.

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