Two thousand and twenty-four was a big year, and boy, howdy if it didn't end—for us—on a higher note than it started on. The Republicans have taken (narrow) control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In two weeks, Donald Trump will stroll back into the Oval Office and start signing executive orders at a mad clip to try to undo some of the damage Joe Biden—well, Joe Biden's handlers—have done.
The GOP will be focused on details for a while. That may last through the two years of the 119th Congress. The Trump administration and Congress have a lot to do and not much time, so we can scarcely blame them for focusing on key items. But what about the big picture? What about the fundamental principles that the GOP operates on?
If I were to draft an open letter to the people of the United States from the Republican Party, it would focus on four things: liberty, property, accountability, and efficiency. That letter might read like this:
To the people of the United States of America: The Republican Party stands as a party of fiscal responsibility, of liberty, of the Constitution. To that end, we propose four fundamental principles, principles that the GOP will abide by in legislating and in governing. Those four principles are liberty, property, accountability, and efficiency.
First: Liberty.
Liberty means you are free to do as you please, so long as you cause no harm, physical or financial, to anyone else. As Thomas Jefferson said, “If it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my arm, it’s not my concern.” This is a coin with two sides: Nobody gets to tell you what to do, but neither do you get to tell anyone else what to do. Marry who you like. Work where and how you like. Start businesses and create new products and services as you like. It’s nobody else’s business – and it sure isn’t the government’s business – until you hurt someone else. We currently live in a nation where you are required to obtain permission from a government bureaucrat to cut hair, paint fingernails, to sell lemonade. This must stop.
Second: Property.
That means the following: The fruits of your labors are yours. They do not belong to some government bureaucrat, some shouting agitator, or some ivory tower academic. They are yours. Government, to be effective at the few things they are required – required – to do, must tax you for some small amount of the fruits of your labors, but that taxation must be strictly limited, strictly fair, simply defined, and some must be collected from every single citizen. Everybody contributes. Nobody skates. There are too many in the nation who have no skin in the game, and our elections have become auctions, with candidates falling over each other promising voters more of other peoples’ property. This must stop.
Third: Accountability.
Government, at all levels, serves you. You do not serve the government. We stand here today not as your masters, but as your employees – and you will be our employers. We are the staff of the world’s largest republic, and you, the citizens of the republic, are the world’s largest board of directors. We answer to you, not the other way around. Every single government employee, from the president to the third assistant dogcatcher in Leaf Springs, Arkansas, answers to you. Every federal employee, every petty bureaucrat, every cabinet-agency staffer, must be evaluated. Any employee who cannot satisfactorily answer two questions: “What is your purpose? What are you doing right now?” should be fired on the spot. Any government official or employee at any level who breaks the law, any law, will be fired and prosecuted. Government employees have, for too long, been held to different standards than the electorate. This must stop.
Fourth: Efficiency.
The federal government has become a bloated Colossus. Washington is littered with extra-constitutional agencies, the purpose of which is to regulate, to dictate, to interfere with the free citizenry. There is no constitutional justification for many of them, and many of them actually work at cross purposes. The result is that every single business enterprise in the nation has to have an army of accountants and attorneys to help them navigate the twisted pathways of regulation and taxation, that every citizen has to puzzle through pages upon pages of federal guidance in so prosaic an action as filing their annual tax return. The federal government has only a few, a very few, legitimate roles: To protect private property, to ensure liberty, and to protect the citizens from foreign interference. That’s all. But not today; no, not today. The federal government has indeed become a bloated Colossus, but we intend to cut it down to size. We pledge to work with the recommendations of the new Department of Government Efficiency to cut things down to size, to return the federal government to its constitutionally defined limits.
To these principles, we will adhere. Your liberty, your property, we pledge to protect.
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Now, place this letter firmly in the category of "stuff Ward daydreams about but can probably never have." I'll be the first to admit that I harbor unrealistic desires, in that I would cheerily cut the federal government back to what it was in 1800, were I made Dictator-for-a-Day and given a broad brush.
But, as the saying goes, a man's reach should exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for? So, sure, let's reach.
Yes, the new GOP-controlled Congress will be focused on the details. That's necessary, for now. And Donald Trump is a pragmatist rather than a committed minarchist. But if we're going to dream - dream big. This open letter would address a lot of my fever dreams for the government and the Republican party. Your mileage may differ.
