Pol i tics

We had an interesting discussion in EQ this last week about politics and the lay of the land now, post-election. One brother joked that the next conservative president we'd have would be Jesus. He might be right. Certainly we'll have another republican president again, but he won't be a conservative in any recognizable form. We just don't have the demographics to pull it off anymore.

This is largely due to immigration and also to changing social norms. A social con has little chance at all anymore. I think it's safe to say we've lost, likely forever, the culture war. And since politics flows from the culture and not the other way around, this is a problem for social cons that wish to make any kind of meaningful headway to regain lost ground.

Commentators say the GOP needs to moderate and to work on its messaging, to find a way to sell its ideas to a modern generation. I don't think you really can. I thought Ryan and Romney did this as well as most anyone could have-their Twitter streams were almost non-stop a list of things they believed in. Political philosophy, straight-up. "I believe the government belongs to us and not the other way around." That kind of thing.

The US is a chronic smoker and we are fighting over which party gets to dole out the cigarettes. We promise that we'll be the party that will cut back to just 3 packs a day from their current 4. Instead we should want to get everyone to stop smoking. Unfortunately, that doesn't win elections anymore.

I think the only chance fiscal conservatives have is to do a version of what this guy, Drew, recommends. I kind of disagree on the amnesty part-what's the win for the republicans to import millions of people who vote 70-30 against us? But I agree with the idea of offering up some compromise on something (I have no idea what) in exchange for a flat tax. It's the only way to make sure everyone has some skin in the game. I truly believe that there is no greater political priority for the GOP than a flat tax. If we can make sure everyone pays something, it won't be so easy the next time a socialist president decides it's worth a 5% tax hike to pay for union pensions or to bail out California. You can only raise taxes on 'the rich' so many times before you no longer have 'the rich' left to tax.

So go all in on flat tax, GOP. Take it from me, an anonymous blogger who draws poorly crafted caricatures of obscure LDS general authorities from time to time.