Navelgazing
I posted over at NZBear's poll seeking important questions of strategery for the now-minority GOP.
Many bloggers assert that the GOP lost Congress in part because of its failure to rein in porkbarrel spending while emergency funding was directed to the areas struck by Hurricane Katrina. So indirectly, had Katrina response been more organized and its money better accounted for, and had governments from local to Federal levels better understood their respective roles and adhered to them, the Porkbusters movement might never have gotten traction and the GOP could possibly have held on to Congress.
As it was, President Bush proposed expansion of the Federal role, fundamentally altering the relationship of States to the Federal government, in my opinion without any justification to do so, in a move that appeared to be raw pandering.
Clearly it behooves the GOP to look at the Federal government's proper role in disaster response, for the sake of the people affected by the disaster. What is the Federal government's role in natural disaster response, how will you explain or defend that definition, and how will you restrain the Federal government from expanding beyond that defined role? How might you use Federal power to protect the rights of the people affected by such disasters, should it appear that local or State governments are violating them?
. . . and . . .
Ryan Sager explains how the GOP used to represent the fusion of interests among religious conservatives, advocates of small government, and strong national defenders. It seems though that in the last 6 years, the religious conservatives have been blatantly pandered to (gay marriage and Terry Schiavo, Internet gambling ban, for example) while national defense has fared acceptably, and small government is not even on the radar (Medicare Rx, No Child Left Behind, campaign finance 'reform', Internet gambling ban).
Do you see the GOP returning to a balance among these constituencies, and if so, how will you work to restore it?
By all means visit there and enhance my questions' standing. For all the good it might do you.
