Personal Responsibility is the GOP's Winning Issue For 2012

[Geee]

American Thinker:

Job One for a leader is vision and strategy; policy and programs follow, not the other way around. Debt and deficits are important, but by focusing everything on green eye shade/inside the Beltway/size of government calculations, not only is the GOP not presenting the positive pro growth implications of fiscal responsibility, it is completely missing the big picture of who we are and what type of country we want to live in. We can certainly disagree with the class warfare vision being articulated by the current Administration -- tax the successful, redistribute wealth, steer the country toward equality of outcomes not opportunity, and expand the role of the government -- but at least they are clear about it.

What is missing is a counter vision that recognizes this is all about freedom and who ultimately controls choice -- we the people, or the government. The simple fact is that there aren't enough of the so called "rich" to fund the grand plans of the social engineers. Inevitably, tax increases to pay for it all will find their way to the middle class. The more folks who pay in, the less differentiated benefit they will get, so we will eventually find ourselves in the position that "government" is taking money from everyone, only to shuffle it around, extract its stay in power fees, and return it to the same folks who just sent it in, as long as they act in a government approved manner. The field will be leveled, with the government making more and more of the decisions for us, and individual freedom will become a distant memory. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see this coming if we simply look back at the last generation of entrenched entitlement programs.

After watching what our elected officials call negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling, I am convinced that the current process is on the wrong track, and nothing less than a complete redefinition of the role of government away from the nanny state trend and back to a renewed era of personal responsibility is needed to alter the landscape. It is the umbrella philosophy that must be embraced to bring the country back to our founding principles of personal liberty. If that is not the kind of society we choose to have, so be it; but we should not pretend that we can maintain our personal liberty while allowing ever more control over the big three of health, retirement, and education to be given over to "someone else." In an era of pure tactical politics, the odds of a GOP leader emerging who embraces this concept as the centerpiece for a true election contrast are slim, but for anyone who wishes to try, and would enjoy drawing the smirks of the establishment and the eye rolls of the political advisor crowd, here is the beginning of a road map.