The GOP Agenda

The GOP has announced their agenda for the fall. It amounts to one item – not losing their ass. The specific items included in the “Let’s Not Get Kicked in the Twig and Giggleberries” campaign (subscription required) offer a whole lot for the social conservatives, but still fall desperately short of anything approaching an agenda for fiscal conservatives.

The GOP already has begun cycling through the American Values Agenda, as the House passed the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act on Tuesday.

The agenda also includes the Pledge Protection Act; the Public Expression of Religion Act; the federal marriage amendment; the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act; the Human Cloning Prohibition Act; a measure reforming the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; an Internet gambling ban; and a measure preventing the government from confiscating citizens’ guns during emergencies.

WTF, guys? I understand that we really like to put our eggs in one basket, but you’re taking a big gamble by placating the social conservatives while ignoring the fiscal conservatives and continuing to pump up the size and scope of the federal government.

I’m so sick of watching the GOP cave on principles of small government (on which the party was founded) in favor of constitutional amendments for the most personal of issues – especially at a time when there are far more pressing concerns: a super-ball stock market that’s bouncing wildly; the war in Iraq; unprecedented grabs at power by the executive branch; and a seemingly inept Congress serving nobody but themselves.

Is this the best we can do as a party? Has our leadership really become that ideologically bankrupt?

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