Resolutions

What Conservatives Should Do in 2006
By Daniel G. Jennings
Every year we all make New Year’s Resolutions, lists of what we should and shouldn’t do in the coming year. What New Year’s Resolutions should Conservatives make in 2006 and why?
The first resolution America’s conservatives need to make in 2006 is to deal with out of control federal funding and the deficits it creates. This spending is now so high that there are only two solutions possible: steep tax increases or big cuts in spending. If Republicans can’t control the spending through budget cuts then the public will turn to the Democrats whose answer will be more taxes. If nothing is done the deficit will hurt the economy and threaten our future. Out of control spending makes Republicans sound like frauds and hypocrites they talk about fiscal discipline but spend like drunken teenagers with daddy’s credit cards.
The second resolution Conservatives need to make is to do something about healthcare costs. The high cost of healthcare has sparked nasty labor disputes around the nation including the New York Transit strike. Vast numbers of average Americans can no longer afford something as simple as a visit to the doctor. Many working people rely on emergency rooms for their medical care. Obviously a solution is needed and fast. One solution is National Health Insurance, if conservatives don’t like National Health Insurance they’d better come up with a practical and effective alternative and fast.
The third resolution Conservatives need to make is to deal with runaway consumer debt. Americans have rung up untold billions in consumer debt: credit cards, mortgages of all kinds, car loans, etc. A large percentage of the population will never pay off these debts yet corporate America keeps pushing more credit on them like a drug dealer pushing smack on a junkie. Something has to be done to stop this cycle of indebtedness or we could face an economic crash on the magnitude of the Great Depression, which was caused largely by out of control consumer spending in the 1920s. Perhaps it’s time to hold the corporate executives issuing all that credit, in many cases to pump up the price of the stock options in order to line their own pockets, accountable for their actions.
The fourth resolution Conservatives need to make is deal with illegal immigration. The public is sick and tired of illegal immigration which it rightly sees as benefitting the corporate elite at the expense of the working class. Fences on the border won’t cut it. Something has to be done to penalize those who employ illegal immigrants. The big corporations who employ illegal immigrants must be made to pay. The politician who has the guts to go after big corporations who employ illegal immigrants will be a national hero on the order of Theodore Roosevelt.
The fifth resolution Conservatives must make is to do something about foreign trade. Our trade deficit is out of control, other countries such as China are building up their economies at our expense.
Our industry has been exported and large corporations are making huge profits at the expense of the America worker. Instead of turning to cutting edge technologies American companies turn to cheap foreign labor which means they will be at a titanic disadvantage when Chinese labor costs rise and Japanese robotics provide a cheap alternative.
The sixth resolution conservatives must make is to come up with a real energy policy. Let’s face it there isn’t enough oil in Alaska or anywhere else in the USA to supply America’s needs. New technologies whether they be solar, wind or hydrogen won’t supply our needs. We need to shift to nuclear reactors to supply our energy and to a proven transportation technology that doesn’t require oil electric powered rail. That’ll be expensive and unpopular, Americans love their cars, but it has to be done. The politician who buckles down and does it will be a national icon on the order of FDR or Ronald Reagan.
The seventh resolution of conservatives has to be coming up with a new foreign policy that takes account of global realities. The go it alone strategy of the Bush Administration may get our patriotic juices flowing but America lacks the economic and military resources to do this forever. The Democratic solution turn to the tired old nations of Europe and the UN is even worse. The so called powers of Europe have fewer military resources available than developing nations like Pakistan and Nigeria and keep in mind that Pakistan and Nigeria are second rate powers. Britain Europe’s number one military power has only enough soldiers available to police one city in Iraq. The French can’t even protect the streets of their own cities. Germany’s contribution in Afghanistan is one MASH unit. The UN is a cesspool of corruption and a bad joke. Yet the world has to be policed, Fortress America didn’t work in 1941 (ask the men who were at Pearl Harbor) when the world was a much bigger place than it is today. It won’t work in today’s world. So America needs to develop new alliances that will secure the peace. America secured world peace for fifty years in the early 1950s by reaching out to the nations of Europe and Asia and forming alliances against Communism. America must reach out to the new powers of the world, China and India, and an old enemy, Russia and regional powers like Brazil, Pakistan and maybe even Iran. This will meaning dumping traditional allies and treating people with different religions, values and beliefs as equals. It might mean having American troops fight side by side with Chinese or Indians. That’ll take a see change in attitudes and an abandoning of the moronic notion of European superiority.
Like all New Year’s Resolutions these resolutions will require lots of hard work and sacrifice. And like most New Year’s Resolutions I imagine these resolutions will be quickly forgotten because they require too much discipline and sacrifice.