With all the radicalism surrounding the Democratic presidential primary — from nearly every candidate’s promises to implement “Medicare for All” to contender California Sen. Kamala Harris’ vows to immediately enact stricter levels of gun control upon taking office — it has never been easier for Republicans to position themselves as champions of limited government and fiscal conservatism.
But where is this fictitious “Grand Old Party” when we most need it, heroically swooping in to rescue the American people from the clutches of big government?
To offer a real example of a small-government conservative, many conservatives would have to go back to the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But with $1.86 trillion added to the national debt during Reagan’s tenure, how could the party of “fiscal responsibility” have left behind a legacy of crippling debt?
The Republican Party also shares responsibility for several gun control measures, such as the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. This law prevented the production of new automatic weapons, and placed a tax on the transfer of weapons already in existence.
The GOP’s neglect of the Second Amendment did not stop with Reagan. On the contrary, it thrived under subsequent Republican presidents, from President George H.W. Bush’s support for a version of the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990, to President Trump’s more recent ban on bump stocks.
The party that supposedly supports free markets has also, at times, embraced Keynesian-style economic interventionism. To quote President George W. Bush, “We have to abandon free market principles to save the free market.”
The GOP engineered the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of the largest regulatory agencies in the United States. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency, the brainchild of Republican President Richard Nixon, has over-regulated farms and small businesses for nearly 50 years.
Some of the key promises and principles of the Republican Party have long since been abandoned. From runaway spending, to overblown regulatory agencies and inconsistent support for civil liberties, the writing on the wall has never been clearer.
To say that the Republican Party has been an accomplice in the construction of one of the largest governments in world history would be an understatement. Conversely, history will forever remember the GOP as both architect and builder of the bloated bureaucratic state, at times marching hand-in-hand alongside their Democratic adversaries.
James Pillion is the New Jersey State Chair for Young Americans for Liberty.
