1) We remain loyal Republicans, in good times and bad.
We are not fair weather Republicans like Susan Eisenhower. When we don’t like the direction of the party, we stay and fight for our principles instead of voting for a snake oil salesman like Obama. Ike remained a proud Republican until his dying breath, unlike his granddaughter who just quit when the going got tough. Imagine if Ike had just quit in 1944.
The darkest hour of the day is right before the dawn and that is why we must be resolute and firm in our beliefs. Republicans have core beliefs and principles that are derived directly from the beliefs and principles of our nation's founding fathers. The modern day Democratic Party does not share our belief in an originalist interpretation of the Constitution that limits federal authority and leaves all other powers to individuals, families and local and state governments.
2) Government is not the problem, but government can't solve every problem.
The people must first look to their local communities and themselves for solutions. Most problems are local problems. Asking the federal government for a solution to your problem is merely passing the buck.
"...problems do exist in health, education, welfare, and other things. They must be solved. But the closer you can bring the action to the local level -- that is the best way to do these things." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
If government is to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" then the people must govern themselves as locally as possible. Individuals and families must be empowered and entrusted to solve most problems for themselves. State and local governments must assert their powers, as granted by the Constitution. When the people cede too much decision making and power to Washington D.C, they slowly but surely lose their freedom and become vassals of the state. Ike knew all too well that a Hitler or Stalin would be the result if the American people ceded too much authority to an all powerful central government.
"Free government is nothing but an opportunity for the exercise of self-discipline. If we don't do those ourselves, then someone is going to do it for us, a strong central agency. If we do not exercise self-discipline, we will be inviting a Hitler, or someone like him.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
3) Government has a duty to develop infrastructure per the Commerce Clause.
Eisenhower's address to Congress in February 1955 in support of the Interstate Highway System:
“Our unity as a nation is sustained by free communication of thought and by easy transportation of people and goods. The ceaseless flow of information throughout the Republic is matched by individual and commercial movement over a vast system of interconnected highways crisscrossing the country and joining at our national borders with friendly neighbors to the north and south.”
“Together, the uniting forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear — United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.”
This means empowering individuals with true consumer choice (many competitors to choose from) and plentiful information to make an informed choice. If Ike were alive today, you can be sure he'd be an advocate for the Internet, nationwide broadband access and nationwide electrical corridors. All are beneficial to promoting commerce and the free transit of information that you are enjoying right now by reading this post. An informed choice you freely made without coercion!
4) Government should empower consumers with “Goldilocks” regulation of free, fair marketplaces.
Empowering consumers means that we should regulate product safety, food safety, etc. Reasonable regulations are necessary to ensure that commerce is fair, free and competitive. For example, the federal government recently announced new regulations for credit card issuers. These regulations are meant to inform and help consumers make better choices while protecting them from aggressive rate hikes on existing balances.
Don't like regulations? Few Republicans do. But think of how free enterprise would function without regulation. The best way to think of this is to imagine a football game with no referees and no rules whatsoever. Players and coaches are expected to call their own penalties. That is laissez-faire capitalism in a nutshell. Any sports fan knows this is ludicrous and would never work.
So we concede that some regulation is always necessary. Just as the founding fathers conceded that some government is always necessary because men are not angels. But too much regulation creates an atmosphere where the officials determine the outcome of the game and "over-referee" the game. Any avid sports fan has seen the result of over-zealous referees. Most sports fans will acknowledge that there is a fine balance between no calls (laissez faire) and throwing a flag on every down and using instant replay on every drive (centrally planned socialism). It's a careful balancing act. Americans prefer fewer penalties (deregulation) but we do not support a total free for all (laissez faire).
5) The government should not reward laziness and guarantee you a free ride through life.
"We are paying too much for this welfare in terms of self-reliance, courage, and devotion to freedom. When you talk about economic security, and neglect to talk about opportunity, you are destroying the pioneer spirit. I expect to see a swing away from all this one of these days, back to traditional values." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom” - – Dwight D. Eisenhower
You do not have a Constitutional right to have your neighbor pay for your food, housing, health care and education.
This is a bedrock principle and non-negotiable. We believe Americans should be charitable and government should encourage charity but not force it upon us. On this point, we Eisenhower Republicans could not disagree more with liberal Democrats. At the heart of charity is love and love must always be freely given, never coerced. We should find creative ways to promote and encourage charity, but we should never use taxation (a form of coercion) to forcibly extract wealth and redistribute it in the name of charity.
We believe in caring for those who cannot care for themselves or are victim of something completely behind their control (natural disaster, cancer, etc.), but we will not support assistance to those who refuse to work to support themselves. Where assistance is given, strict criteria should be applied to ensure the public goodwill is not abused.
Assistance should be repaid in kind once (and if) the recipient is able to do so. It should not be a handout, it should be a loan. We should always encourage and promote charitable giving to give citizens the choice to help their neighbors. It is always best when people choose to give freely to help their fellow man.
A welfare state run by forcibly confiscating wealth leads to a false sense that the government has taken over the role of charity. In the long run, the welfare state hurts everyone by destroying the drive to work hard and forcibly taking the income that citizens should be freely giving to their neighbors and loved ones in times of need.
6) Government should act to conserve, manage and protect vital, finite resources.
Conservation was a plank of Theodore Roosevelt's vision for America. It is just as important, perhaps more so, today. Government does have a role in monitoring supplies of vital resources and devising regulations to promote wise stewardship of these resources.
The best example of this is wildlife, fisheries and forestry management. While these are renewable resources (unlike petroleum), the point is still valid. Long ago, government recognized the value of ensuring that rapidly increasing consumption of these resources did not destroy the "goose that lays the golden egg". Government can and should step in if resources are severely threatened by unsustainable consumption rates.
7) Roe v. Wade and decisions like it are a terrible rewriting of the Constitution.
"We have too many judges who have been sitting on the bench too long. This is serious, because there has been a trend toward rewriting the Constitution by a series of judicial decisions." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Supreme Court invented a nonexistent “right to privacy” to trump the people’s authority to settle the issue of abortion via the legislative process. Roe v. Wade is as ludicrous a decision as Dred Scott was. If abortion is to be a federal issue at all, it should be settled the way that prohibition of alcohol was. Let the people decide for themselves.
Abortion was always a state issue prior to 1973 and was never, ever a federal issue. Abortion has been around for centuries. Clearly the founding fathers never intended the federal government to have anything at all to do with a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy. The issue should go back to the states or an amendment to the Constitution should settle the matter (as with the precedent of Prohibition).
For similar reasons, we believe that most, if not all, social issues are the domain of state and local governments. They should only become a federal issue via Constitutional amendments, as in the case of the regulation of alcoholic beverages. The founders never intended the Constitution be abused to allow the federal government entry into social issues such as abortion, contraception, sodomy and other areas the Supreme Court has seen fit to overreach its Constitutional bounds in recent decades.
8) Every dollar in increased taxation decreases economic freedom.
Taxation is necessary for vital services and functions that only the government can perform. However, every new dollar in taxation decreases an individual's economic freedom to choose how to invest that dollar as they see fit. We must carefully balance how each additional tax dollar taken is worth the freedom of choice it deprives the taxpaying citizen of. Government must be a good steward of the tax dollars it does receive and seek to maximize the efficiency of existing government operations.
All government programs should be vigorously reviewed the way Jack Welch reviewed operations as CEO of GE. Ineffective and unnecessary programs should be scrapped. On this issue, Republicans must always be the party that leads in reforming and streamlining the operations of government to make the machinery run as smoothly as possible. Waste and abuse of the government treasury is unacceptable and intolerable.
9) When we go to war, we go all out or we don't go at all.
"I do not believe in 'gradualism' in fighting a war…I believe in putting in the kind of military strength we need to win and getting over with as soon as possible." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
No one knew better than Ike the cost of war. He came into office promising to end the conflict in Korea and he did. He kept us out of war for the rest of his Presidency. But Ike knew that when you go to war, you go all out to win -- you don’t waste American blood and treasure on a fool’s errand like LBJ’s half assed attempt to win the war in Vietnam.
Untie the military and let them fight when they are sent into battle and don’t send them into battle unless you are prepared for total war and its consequences. War is terrible but sometimes the cost of war is less than the cost of staying neutral. We should neither be eager to go to war nor hesitant about destroying the enemy when we find ourselves in a war.
10) Americans must do what we can to promote and preserve freedom around the world.
"Freedom is indivisible—if we allow other people to lose their freedom, without doing anything about it, then we have lost some freedom of our own."
"We are not trying to gain for the United States any more power, wealth, or territory anywhere in the world…It is simply a matter of protecting freedom wherever it exists."
Ike believed, as we believe, that America should promote and educate everyone, not just our own people, about true freedom and encourage all people to fight for and defend their right to self governance. We will lend our support whenever we can in whatever form we deem best. We seek no recompense.
On this subject, Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush often gave great speeches. But perhaps no President better summarized America’s commitment to freedom than President Kennedy:
"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
2 Response to The Ten Principles of an Eisenhower Republican
Gosh, I don't see Eisenhower in some of these. Maybe you could add quotes to help see Ike's direct comments on the point?
Let's take 8) Every dollar in increased taxation decreases economic freedom.
The tax rate on the wealthiest Americans was 91% under Eisenhower. He had one of the highest tax rates! The debt was 110% of GDP after WWII. It's only 60% now, because of risky bank practices. If we just look at those numbers, we MUST raise the tax rate if we were Ike. Can you share quotes that show he thought these low tax rates and no paying debts are his belief?
Or how about his warning about the Military Industrial Complex (his words)? He was a general. He knows about the military. It's out of control spending, as he warned. It needs to be cut.
Maybe you could update with Ike's actual words to have us consider his policy today?
How is this ANYTHING like Ike? He was more Libertarian than this neo-con let's spread democracy around the world crap.
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