the Silent Majority

In 1994, the Republican Party released The Contract With America, a comprehensive plan detailing actions that the party would take it if they became the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives.  If elected, the House Republicans promised to implement 10 bills in the interest of limited government reform, including the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would require a balanced budget; the Personal Responsibility Act, designed to drastically cut state-funded welfare programs; and the Citizen Legislature Act, which would impose 12-year term limits on members of the United States Congress.  While the Republicans ultimately gained the majority in the House (their first majority in 40 years), the 104th Congress failed to pass the majority of their proposed initiatives.

The question is: why isn’t the Republican Party of today talking about truly limiting the size of the federal government?  The reason is that they can’t.  The same substantial limited government platform that helped elect a Republican majority in 1994 has suddenly transformed into indecorous, unsolicited political rhetoric used to help elect Republican majorities for five consecutive election cycles.  And what legislative accomplishments do the Republicans have to show for it?  Should the Republican Party return to a platform of individual liberty and personal responsibility, why should we believe them?

Today, once Republican issues such as personal and fiscal responsibility, states’ rights, and term limits are being substituted with social issues such as abortion rights, homosexual marriage, and an unhealthy infatuation with tax cuts sprinkled about, representing the sole remnants of a Republican Party that once cared about limited government.  But hey, everyone loves tax cuts, right?