A Word From Tom Delay

WE HAVEN’T heard too much lately from Tom DeLay, the architect, after Newt Gingrich, of the Republican capture of Congress in 1994. We know he’s a passionate conservative, but we haven’t heard too much of what he is doing.

In a recent op-ed, DeLay urges conservatives to get moving. There are plenty of good ideas floating around, he writes, and a few bad ones too. But whatever the ideas “Our core principles of order, justice, and freedom do not change.” Here’s his advice to Republicans running this year.

Republican incumbents and challengers running for Congress this year can translate the values of order, justice, and freedom into five basic principles for conservative government: winning the war; rewriting a 21st century tax code; redesigning government, according to constitutional precepts; restoring the federal judiciary to its proper and constitutional place; and, cultivating our society’s culture of life.

Let’s face it, he suggests, the future is wide open to conservatives.

Questions like “What does victory in the war on terror look like?” and “If we had to create a health care or retirement system from scratch, what would it look like?” will never be asked, let alone answered by liberals.

Why is this so? Why don’t liberals swoop down and grab the best ideas of conservatives instead of barking and snapping at every proposed conservative reform like the dog in the manger? It’s a good question. My own view is that liberals are too focused on personal agendas, particularly the chimera of “creativity,” to think seriously about political ideas.

Meanwhile conservatives can get busy.

Without the responsibilities of a majority party, minority Republicans in the House can work with leading conservatives from around the country to devise specific reforms of our health care, immigration, budget, energy, and tax systems. They can force the Democrats to go on the record about the war on terror, marriage, and the proper role of faith in the public square. Through the vote you regain your stature and credibility. Meanwhile, individual candidates from around the country can interpret conservative principles to best suit their own districts.

When will this all come to fruition? My answer is: sooner than you think. So there is no time to be lost.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.