“Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” chief-of-staff-designate Rahm Emanuel told the New York Times the Sunday after Barack Obama’s election. “They are opportunities to do big things.”
Emanuel deserves points for candor. But perhaps not for perspicacity. His assumption was that the economic crisis was and would remain Bush’s crisis and that the opportunities were and would remain Obama’s opportunities. But what if the crisis becomes Obama’s crisis? Then the opportunities can be Republican opportunities.
The first two months of the Age of Obama haven’t turned out quite the way Emanuel and Obama’s legions hoped and expected. The early momentum is flagging. The effort to rush through big-government liberal policies, as somehow part of a response to a financial crisis he’s not actually addressing effectively, may backfire. Several of his nominations and appointments have had to be withdrawn, and others should have been.
Meanwhile, the GOP recovery program is going pretty well. Republicans have progressed from shell-shocked timidity through small-bore sniping and onto robust (and responsible) opposition. The GOP has shown itself able to stand up and counter Obama’s arguments. The Bush hangover seems to be proving less burdensome than expected, and some of the GOP’s members of Congress are turning out to be more presentable than suspected. Organizing in opposition to Obama’s onerous cap-and-trade energy proposal, his attempted government takeover of health care, his attempt to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections, and his tax increases is proceeding apace, and holds out reasonable prospects for success.
But beyond organizing for opposition to the Obama administration (and granting support to it, of course, where appropriate), the GOP should begin looking for opportunities. Opportunities to think anew about big issues, such as how to organize and regulate the financial markets, and opportunities to advance smaller initiatives. In the Carter years, the Republican minority in Congress–and conservative thinkers and activists outside–debunked the president’s fecklessness and exposed liberalism’s failures. They resisted policies that deserved to be resisted, but also developed a broad new agenda and advanced many smaller initiatives–some of them actually becoming law over a reluctant Carter’s signature–consistent with that agenda.
It’s not too early for Republicans and conservatives to start to try to take advantage of the opportunities facing them. Here are two small examples, among many.
First, Obama is, for PR reasons and PR reasons only (and not very good PR reasons at that), committed to closing Guantánamo. GOP members of Congress can make clear just how dangerous the remaining Guantánamo detainees are, and how irresponsible are some of the proposals for sending them abroad or trying them in the criminal justice system. The GOP should seek the release of the Defense Department report on terrorist acts by some of the less dangerous detainees released from Guantánamo under the Bush administration. Republicans can seek to slow or reverse Obama’s decision, requiring that he certify that closing Guantánamo will not endanger American lives, providing funding for Guantánamo in the budget whether or not Obama wants it, and so forth. Lots of Democrats would have trouble opposing such efforts.
Second, what’s now the rationale for discriminating against ROTC on elite college campuses? The “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy? Well, Obama is president and the Democrats control Congress. They can change that policy if they want to. Meanwhile, the military and those students who want to serve their country are punished. Obama is himself on record favoring the readmission of ROTC to campuses. As graduation season approaches, shouldn’t Republicans in Congress push President Obama to pressure his academic buddies to move on this? Wouldn’t a lot of Democrats want to join such an effort?
There’s no shortage of opportunities, on matters big and small, for conservatives and Republicans to go on the offensive and to do so in ways that split liberals and Democrats. Republicans aren’t going to govern for the next few years. But they shouldn’t assume they’ll be powerless or that they’re required only to play defense.
So rule one for Republicans and conservatives: Never allow a Democratic administration to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do big things–to regain the political and intellectual offensive on various fronts, and to set the predicate both for returning to power and for doing big things upon recapturing the presidency.
–William Kristol
