Saturday, January 05, 2013

Equal Opportunity; Choice = Opportunity

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), newly elected Cuban-American from our #2 state, has provided what I believe is the way forward for Republicans in 2014 and 2016. In a Washington Post article entitled “What the GOP should stand for: Opportunity,” Cruz writes :
53 % of voters believed the economy was George W. Bush’s fault. . . Obama repeated it relentlessly, and Republicans never responded. First you win the argument, then you win the vote, Margaret Thatcher famously admonished. Republicans did neither. . . Voters were convinced that the GOP is the party of “the rich” and that Democrats are the party of everybody else.
let me suggest an alternative course: opportunity conservatism. Republicans should conceptualize and articulate every domestic policy with a single-minded focus on easing the ascent up the economic ladder. . . We should champion the 47%. . . Why do millions of people from all over the world come to the United States? Because no other nation has offered such opportunity. Nowhere else can so many come with nothing and achieve anything.
Americans want to stand on their own feet, and Republicans need to champion policies that enable us to do so: ownership, choice and individual responsibility. Opportunity conservatism is a powerful frame to explain conservative policies that work. . . Republicans ought to [explain] every policy through the lens of economic mobility.
Here some examples of CruzTalk:
  • excessive financial and environmental regulations. . . kill jobs and restrict Americans’ ability to buy their first home. 
  • fundamentally reform the tax code so that every American can file his taxes on a postcard. Eliminate . . . complexity that enrich[es] only accountants and lawyers. 
  •  union . . . closed shops confiscate wages and make it harder for low-skilled workers to get jobs. 
  •  advocate school choice to empower parents and expand opportunity for children. 
  •  promote personal [social security] accounts [that] allow low-income Americans to accumulate wealth and pass it on.

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