The 2008 CPAC Conference: These kids are alright

While appearing as a panelist at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), I was heartened to see so many young conservatives in attendance.

I was not swept with nostalgic sentiment for my youth as a nascent Reaganite, though those days were filled with excitement and exploits – a few of which can be recounted in polite company. What struck me was the prescience of modern conservatism’s intellectual founder, Russell Kirk. Today, as this generation of young conservatives embarks upon their service to America, I hope they will be inspired and guided by Kirk’s caution to my Generation X conservatives, many of whom did not heed his wisdom:

“…all ideologies work mischief. I am fortified by a letter from an influential and seasoned conservative publicist, who applauds my excoriation of young ideologues fancying themselves to be conservatives, and of young conservatives fondly hoping to convert themselves into ideologues. This latter correspondent agrees with me that ideology is founded merely upon ‘ideas’ – that is, upon abstractions, fancies, for the most part unrelated to personal and social reality; while conservative views are founded upon custom, convention, the long experience of the human species. He finds himself confronted, from time to time, by young people, calling themselves conservative, who have no notion of prudence, temperance, compromise, the traditions of civility, or cultural patrimony.”

Again, he is talking about my Generation X conservatives.

Read on . . .

“‘The woods are full of these creatures,’ this gentleman writes. ‘The conservative ‘movement’ seems to have reared up a new generation of rigid ideologists. It distresses me to find them as numerous and in so many institutions. Of course, many are libertarians, not conservatives. Whatever they call themselves, they are bad for the country and our civilization. Theirs is a cold-blooded, brutal view of life.’

“Amen to that…

“The triumph of ideology would be what Edmund Burke called ‘the antagonist world’ – the world of disorder; while what the conservative seeks to conserve is the world of order that we have inherited, if in a damaged condition, from our ancestors. The conservative mind and the ideological mind stand at opposite poles. And the contest between those two mentalities may be no less strenuous in the twenty-first century than it has been during the twentieth. Possibly [these words] may be of help to those of the rising generation who have the courage to oppose ideological zealots.”

Unlike so many of my own generation, I trust the inspiring youths of this rising generation of conservatives will take Kirk’s advice to heart; fulfill their noble role in our troubled world; and redeem our tortured times. For while daunting, I know they will embrace and transcend the challenge in the virtuous spirit of Rupert Brooke’s verse:

Now, God be thanked,
Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth,
And wakened us from sleeping….

To learn more about Russell Kirk read The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot or visit www.kirkcenter.org

- Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (MI) is chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

Restoring the Republican Party

S-CHIP and the Politics of Principle

Democrats and like-witted pundits claim the S-CHIP reauthorization is a defining issue which will seal the GOP's electoral fate next fall. Unscrupulously using children as props in a soulless script replete with ironic appeals to an apparently socialist Almighty, these Denizens of Governmental Dependence gleefully assert the "politics" of S-CHIP will mask their policy's fiscal irresponsibility and trump Republicans' foundational principles.

If this were the case, the Democrats and their Left-wing smear groups wouldn't be threatening to spend millions to intimidate Republicans into abandoning our core beliefs and over-riding a promised Presidential veto. We must and will resist; and, so doing, we will triumph.

First, the S-CHIP bill (H.R. 976) must be vetoed. This politically motivated bill advances a government run health care system by arbitrarily spending $35 billion over the next five years to expand a social program originally targeted at poor children to now include children and adults in families making over $100,000 a year and people who already possess private health care insurance. In consequence, over 2 million people will be crowded out of their existing private health insurance and ensnared in this social welfare program. Moreover, despite purporting otherwise, this bill ensures many of these new enrollees will also be illegal immigrants, who need only show a valid driver's license to join. (Remember: in some states, most recently New York, one need not prove citizenship to receive a driver's license).

Compounding these problems, the bill refuses to prioritize federal spending and, instead, imposes a regressive tax disproportionately impacting the poor. Even with the new tax hike, the new S-CHIP program is unsustainable beyond 2013 and, thus, is fiscally irresponsible. This insult to the taxpayers is exacerbated when one takes into account the Democrats' Budget Resolution's promise of massive personal tax increases, many of which will be slated to fund S-CHIP or worse in future years.

At its core, then, the S-CHIP debate provides the following stark contrasts between the two parties' guiding principles:

1. Republicans believe Americans are sovereign citizens. Democrats believe Americans are hapless victims.

2. Republicans believe the federal government must serve sovereign Americans. Democrats believe Americans must serve a sovereign federal government.

3. Republicans believe in reducing people's taxes. Democrats believe in raising people's taxes.

4. Republicans believe social programs exist to make poor people self-reliant. Democrats believe social programs exist to make all people state dependents.

5. Republicans want poor people to escape the welfare state. Democrats want all people inside the welfare state.

6. Republicans believe America needs a fiscally sound social safety net that temporarily helps poor people and respects taxpayers. Democrats believe America needs a big government trampoline that permanently traps poor people and impoverishes taxpayers.

7. Republicans believe a social program's success is measured by how many people have escaped from it. Democrats believe a social program's success is measured by how many people have been added to it.

8. Republicans believe government should not use taxpayers' money to unfairly compete against taxpaying businesses. Democrats believe government should use taxpayers' money to unfairly compete against taxpaying businesses.

9. Republicans believe in free enterprise and our citizenry. Democrats believe in the welfare state and its bureaucracy.

If our Republican Party is daunted by the politics of S-CHIP and shrinks from reaffirming its defining principles, social welfare programs will never help poor Americans escape governmental dependence. Instead, the Democrats will continue their push to shackle Americans with a bureaucrat-centered health care system and other insidious forms of governmental dependence; and our Republican Party – the party of the Great Emancipator – will not only lose the next election.

It will lose its soul.


by Representative Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11)
Chairman, Republican House Policy Committee

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter speaks to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County Fashion Show

This Afternoon I spoke to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland, at their Fashion Show Fundraiser. Here is video of my speech. Enjoy.

Rep. McCotter tells Midwest peers: Start acting like Republicans

INDIANAPOLIS -- Making an unabashed case for "American exceptionalism," Michigan Representative Thad McCotter told a gathering of Midwestern Republicans that their party's congressional members must re-embrace bedrock Republican principles of limited government, lower taxes and expanding liberty.

Calling Democrats "the party of redistribution, regulation and retreat," McCotter said Republicans in Congress must "remember that they are Republicans and act like it." The Livonia Republican, who chairs the House Republican Policy Committee, spoke to activists from a dozen states on the final day of the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference here.
Comparing Americans today to those who suffered the Great Depression and won World War II, McCotter said the United States today faces similarly daunting challenges -- and unlike that previous generation, faces those challenges simultaneously.

The "greatest generation," McCotter said, faced the Depression, World War II, the rise of the Soviet Union and the need to extend civil rights to all Americans regardless of race. Today's challenges, he said, are globalization, the fight against extremist terrorism, the rise of "a communist Chinese super-state" and the question of whether "moral relativism and violent secularism" will undermine America's moral order.

"I believe, like previous generations, we will meet these challenges and overcome them," he said, encouraging Republican activists

He had tough words for China, saying during a question-and-answer session that "I don't think the communist Chinese are fooling anybody except the people making millions of dollars there."
And he got laughter and applause when answering a question about immigration policy. Calling illegal immigration a threat to U.S. sovereignty and the rights of American citizens, McCotter said, "The good news is that your House Republicans are very strong on this issue. Talk to your senators."

You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@detnews.com.