COLUMN: Politics should stick to principals

    Tea Partiers swept into Washington this January ready to make a stand – they would force government growth to stop and take major steps to cut it back. Indeed, the Republicans have been telling us for years and years that such is their platform. That they are the party of limited government, individual rights and prosperity. But they have continuously shown the opposite colors once sitting in the chambers of congress and behind the desk in the oval office. President Bush’s lack of control when it came to spending was only the worst violation in a string against small government ideology.

    During the two Presidential terms of that champion of small government – at least in speech – Ronald Reagan, federal spending increased by nearly 23 percent. This is to be compared with an increase of just under 13 percent during Clinton’s two terms.

    Disgust with Bush and a congress that was in his back pocket finally gathered small-government minded individuals to stand up against the big-government Republicans. They called themselves the Tea Party, after those American freedom lovers who stood up against British taxes and waste. For a while it looked like they might actually be making a difference. Republicans started holding firm to the idea that the budget must be cut. There was a deadlock in Washington. And then, the Republicans found a sticking point for Democrats – Planned Parenthood spending. Threatening to take away funding for the organization drove Democrats wild.

    With the Planned Parenthood threat, Republicans were finally in a position to secure some sort of cutback. They could compromise somewhere else – cut something – so long as Democrats got their beloved Planned Parenthood. And they did! The budget passed is a full $38 billion less than last year’s – a 1 percent decrease. To make matters worse, when defense spending is factored into the budget, the budget congress just passed is actually a spending increase of $3.3 billion.

    And the deficit this year? It will be $1.65 trillion – a full $380 billion increase from 2010.

    Is the situation hopeless? We can compare the Republican’s budget retreat to Obama’s broken campaign promises on the left. The man who was to sweep into Washington as an outsider to bring change and hope to a new generation of Americans has become just another government crony. In general, he has acted much as his predecessor, doing many of the same things as President that Senator Obama had criticized Bush for.

      The Washington mire seems so deep that even our whitest knights become tarnished after but a few weeks there. Why is this? Who is to blame? Our politicians have shown themselves to be primarily men of pragmatic concern, not ideological foundation. And this pragmatism allows fear-mongering to get the best of them. As much as we all like to sit back and complain about politicians in Washington – those we disagree with for doing the wrong or foolish things and those we do agree with for not upholding their campaign promises – our government is a representative government and ultimately we, the people, are to blame for our leaders.

    I believe our leaders are but a symptom of a deep problem. We, the American people, have lost focus. We are a nation with an ideological founding. When the founders revolted against the British Crown, they provided a statement of the ideological foundations of that action in the Declaration of Independence. Our nation is defined by a belief that all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

    How many Americans think of such things when thinking about who they will vote for? How many remember the words of the declaration when they go into the voting booth? Instead, we are driven by pragmatic necessities – the day-to-day concerns we all have. Focusing on such things leads to a people that is easily misled. We have short-term outlooks.

    Let us remember that the founders took a stand. They had clear principles and saw the world changing to oppose those principles. They pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the cause. Without these men making the decision to stand firm in their ideals, rather than worry about their material existences alone, America would not have stepped out on her own. Instead of being a pillar of strength for the free civilized world, she would have remained but one of many colonies in the British Empire.

    Each American must realize that each day he decides how his life is lived: Whether his life is simply about surviving comfortably until tomorrow or about standing firm to principles he knows are true. We each have a sacred responsibility to make our principles clear to ourselves and to live by them.

Charles Major is a graduate student studying business. He can be reached a charlesrmajor@gmail.com.