Twas A Famous Victory

REPUBLICANS enjoyed a well-earned victory lap last night, giving President Bush a manly cheer as he addressed the Congress and the nation. “It was a grand night for celebrating,” wrote Stephanie Mansfield.

For all the quagmire talk coming out of the MSM the President has had an astonishing year, winning at the important things while stumbling on the unimportant things.

He achieved three elections in Iraq (think of that!), continued robust economic growth founded upon the taxs rate cuts of 2003, and he ended the Bork era by nominating two conservatives to the Supreme Court and obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate to do so.

The Democrats decided to give battle on the Supreme Court nominations and they were soundly beaten. In retrospect, it is easy to see that everything turned out in the president’s favor. First he nominated John Roberts, a man that the Democrats could never get a grip on. Then he nominated Harriet Miers who turned out to be a curious diversion, reminding Republicans just what the long march through the judicial institutions of the last twenty years was all about. Then he nominated Italian-American Samuel Alito (it translates from the Italian as “Breath” according to Google), and the Democrats attacked. They sent in the Old Guard, just as Napoleon did at Waterloo, with drums rolling. But even the Old Guard of Senators Kennedy, Kerry, and Schumer could not break the Republican square. La garde recule! came the cry, and the Kossites broke up in rage and confusion. It was a famous victory.

After the battle, what then? What do we do next to continue the long march to transform this great nation from Entitlement America to Ownership America, from rights-obsessed adolescence to mature self-government?

Take a look in the mirror. The next step is up to you and me.

Sphere: Related Content |

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

TAGS

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

China and Christianity

At first, we thought [the power of the West] was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity.
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches… they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Civil Society

“Civil Society”—a complex welter of intermediate institutions, including businesses, voluntary associations, educational institutions, clubs, unions, media, charities, and churches—builds, in turn, on the family, the primary instrument by which people are socialized into their culture and given the skills that allow them to live in broader society and through which the values and knowledge of that society are transmitted across the generations.
Francis Fukuyama, Trust

Class War

In England there were always two sharply opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the nineteenth century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status... Then came the triumph of Margaret Thatcher... The academics lost their power and prestige and... have been gloomy ever since.
Freeman Dyson, “The Scientist as Rebel”

Conservatism

Conservatism is the philosophy of society. Its ethic is fraternity and its characteristic is authority — the non-coercive social persuasion which operates in a family or a community. It says ‘we should...’.
Danny Kruger, On Fraternity

Conservatism's Holy Grail

What distinguishes true Conservatism from the rest, and from the Blair project, is the belief in more personal freedom and more market freedom, along with less state intervention... The true Third Way is the Holy Grail of Tory politics today - compassion and community without compulsion.
Minette Marrin, The Daily Telegraph

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Drang nach Osten

There was nothing new about the Frankish drive to the east... [let] us recall that the continuance of their rule depended upon regular, successful, predatory warfare.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

mysql close 0