New Paradigm Review

Ebonics for Republicans: “The New Conservative Paradigm” a review by Bill Gram-Reefer © 2008 http://halfwaytoconcord.com

The New Conservative Paradigm by Thomas G. Del Beccaro TMK Books ISBN: 978-0-9801142-0-1 Some fuss has been made recently concerning the appearance of “The New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G Del Beccaro. Del Beccaro is the Vice Chair of the California Republican Party, and Chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee. Tempting fate, just like the current batch of Republican presidential candidates, Del Beccaro claims to be the new delphic oracle of Reaganism. In fact, New Paradigm does nothing more than repackage the “three legs of the stool” analogy commonly used to describe the erstwhile Reagan Coalition: fiscal conservatives; pro-defense/military; and social conservatives. In this version of the Reagan mythology, Del Beccaro offers the stunningly unoriginal “Three Pillars” of electoral wisdom: Pro-Growth/Tax-cuts; defense of America, and “respect” for American values and traditions. Del Beccaro’s conclusions that include: zero-based budgeting; cost-analysis of government programs; 2-yr budgeting cycles, etc., also break no new ground, as we’ve been hearing such bromides from scolds like Newt Gingrich and former Democratic Congressman, Tim Penny, since 1995. Yet, New Paradigm offers a window into the current state of accepted, uncritical Republican thinking, and deserves a closer look. In his “rock-paper-scissors” scheme of presidential politics, Del Beccaro suggests that candidates and parties that best champion tax-cuts, defense of America, and respect for its values, are more likely to win national elections. In obeisance to Reagan, Del Beccaro wears out the “Optimism” of the Gipper’s belief that Americans have the power to begin again and “remake the world,” to prove “we the people” can do better good than government. New Paradigm, in turn, offers this optimism: Three Pillars that are the rational basis for action toward achieving the goal of electoral glory. First, pro-growth tax cuts. Del Beccaro describes JFK’s well-known tax-cutting bona fides, and then recounts how Reagan insisted tax cuts stimulate economies and free people from reliance upon government. Furthermore, in tandem with pro-growth tax policies, “reforms” that get government out of the way and frees corporate America from over-reaching regulatory pain, cannot help but insure electoral victory. Ebonics for Republicans: “A New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G. Del Beccaro; a book review by Bill Gram-Reefer, © 2008 by http://halfwaytoconcord.com page 1

Del Beccaro then introduces two additional pillars of the New Paradigm. Those Progrowth candidates and parties that convince American voters that they will best protect America and its interests abroad; and who best respect so-called American values and traditions—like school prayer, public display of nativity scenes, and prohibitions against flag-burning—are certain to regain ascendancy in national politics. New Paradigm then offers numerous charts showing congressional representation and presidential election results over time to prove success comes from honoring the New Paradigm’s Three Pillars. The author’s approach to the role of government and king-of-the-hill manipulation of election slogans betrays its own internal dilemmas. Del Beccaro’s grand edifice starts to teeter when he fails to account honestly for recent economic history. For as much as New Paradigm touts Tax Cuts and Regulatory Reform as the end all and be all of winning electoral policy, it fails to seriously consider the government spending side of the equation. According to Del Beccaro, if Republicans want to “take the lead,” they must convince voters they will cut taxes. The voters will love this, especially if the rhetoric lets them think they can have pet programs, too. Politics becomes a game where candidates and parties subjugate debate of critical ideas to the technique of outwitting the opposition in a rhetorical game of capture the tax-cut flag while pulling the wool over the electorate. For Del Beccaro, perception, not substance, is everything.1 Eventually, voters begin to see they were fooled and the economists among them begin to complain that tax cutting without reduced spending is “voodoo economics.” For as the growth and growth rate of government spending has increased rapidly under both Republican and Democratic leaders, it becomes plain that these solemn electoral season promises to “starve the beast” through tax cuts alone, simply do not work.2 Reduced taxes, without reduced spending and real reduction of government to the relief of civil society in general has created a wasteland of fiscal, tax, and social policy. New Paradigm’s house of cards completely collapses when Del Beccaro frankly admits that pro-growth tax cuts are more important than the other two foundational pillars which, may not even be needed to win after all!3 Some paradigm! So much for the three-legged stool and the blessed Three Pillars we were told Conservatism requires to flourish in the 21st Century. What kind of whittled down Paradigm does this bargaining get us?

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e.g. pp. 179, 185, 193, 197, anon.

See analysis from USA Today at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-02-federalspending-inside_x.htm; See also: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3750 2

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p.198 Ebonics for Republicans: “A New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G. Del Beccaro; a book review by Bill Gram-Reefer, © 2008 by http://halfwaytoconcord.com page 2

It is telling that the whole reason for this book is to help Republicans regain ascendancy, to take back “the lead” from Democrats. For good or ill, playing the game and “winning” seems to be the only payoff. Couldn’t the goals be a more just society? Improvement of lives, and healthier institutions? No, the enrichment of citizens, communities, and societal structures are not as important as Republicans winning national elections and “staying ahead” of Democrats. What is left is politics for politics sake; where Reagan’s optimism and appeal to a “higher purpose” are reduced to pragmatic tools in a game of “who wins” for competing interest groups, power brokers, political insiders, and a media invested in keeping the rules of the game the same. It is the same-old manipulation of big government by the Left or the Right—depending on who most recently fooled the electorate—to produce economic growth to benefit special interests through various brands of conservative or liberal tax policy and so-called regulatory reform. By championing JFK the “Tax-Cutter” and the spirit of Clinton’s nuanced finesse of “middle-class” tax cuts, New Paradigm makes plain that the primacy of gamesmanship and the mantra of “economic growth” knows no party line. In this manner, rather than laying a foundation for a new Conservatism Paradigm, Del Beccaro proves instead that there is really no difference between Republicans and Democrats on this point. Push come to shove, Conservatism is merely the “revolution-lite” luxury-class, slow-boat to the laissez-faire good life prophesied by Classical Liberalism, where government’s role is to safeguard prosperity with the promise of absolute security. In contrast, Democrats and the radicals in steerage itch to rev the titanic engines of governmentdriven economic prosperity, scientific achievement, and the promise of escape or protection from traditions and institutions that stand in the way of the ideology of absolutized individual freedom. In the end, despite their election-year claims about God and Country, both poles of the same ideology bow down to a “Better World Through Westinghouse.” New Paradigm’s shallow thinking is also expressed in its vapid conclusions and suggestions for hope that are limited to accounting procedures and legislative housekeeping aimed at fine-tuning economic performance. For presenting a glorious New Paradigm, Del Beccaro offers no real thinking about the role of government. This is something Conservatives ought to be better at than Democrats; simply because even moderate Republicans preternaturally understand that limited government is better than the California Assembly’s notion that government knows no bounds or purpose other than the whim of a feckless mob. Is government just a means to other ends: such as human freedom, or economic prosperity, or the enhancement of the nation’s strength? Or is its purpose to uphold a Ebonics for Republicans: “A New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G. Del Beccaro; a book review by Bill Gram-Reefer, © 2008 by http://halfwaytoconcord.com page 3

healthy public commons in which a vast diversity of human activity is maintained for the long-term wellbeing of all citizens? Should Conservatives simply understand government as the guarantor of a free market through which, it is assumed, every good can be realized in freedom from government intervention. Or—while free markets certainly represent an important economic dimension of a healthy diversified society—perhaps government has a responsibility to do justice not only to capital, property, and labor, but also to individuals, families, churches, schools, ecology, and other dimensions of civil society, none of which is reducible to the economic considerations of the Left, or Smith’s or von Mises’s classic liberal notions of the sovereign, rational individual.4 You’d think a New Conservative Paradigm would have touched on these basic points, at least for a second. But New Paradigm, qua political pamphlet, avoids any heavy lifting when it comes to fundamental issues; instead it appeals to banal sloganeering and technique while pounding the podium with a shoe. Come to think of it, one has to wonder if this pamphlet was even written by a Conservative. Frankly, the author as much as tells Social Conservatives to sit down and shut up, because pro-growth tax-cutting and economic reform is “the name of the game.” The freedom to choose schools, medical care, and retirement accounts; or the call to protect the unborn, frail and aging, and minority communities, as well as defend human identity from modernity’s shiny new toy, genetic science, are relegated to back bench status in Del Beccaro’s Brave New Conservatism—where anything goes—just as long as it’s the promise of economic growth. Just how did the fiscal conservative branch of the Reagan Coalition morph into noholds-barred pro-growth tax cutting that has produced nothing but more government, not less? And, where does Del Beccaro get the notion that it’s OK to jettison social issues that champion freedom just to win elections? We are not sure this is exactly what Ronald Reagan meant, nor is it a balanced and vital political worldview for California or the nation. Yet we hear the justification, “Why fracture the party? Let’s concentrate on things all Republicans can agree on to win elections: lower taxes and reduce government regulation, right?” Indeed. Yet, while some well-meaning California Republicans may wish to tone down strident, exclusionary politics, at least they don’t throw out Reagan’s “Higher Purpose” baby with the bath water as does The New Conservative Paradigm. Finally, during the chaos of Election 2008, one can’t help but notice the striking resemblance of Romney, McCain, and Huckabee to the three lost tribes of the old Reagan Coalition: money, defense, and values. What does it say that Romney, running as the “fiscal conservative,” was so unceremoniously shown the door? Grand politically4

Usually rich, white, and male. Ebonics for Republicans: “A New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G. Del Beccaro; a book review by Bill Gram-Reefer, © 2008 by http://halfwaytoconcord.com page 4

motivated “paradigms” such as Del Beccaro’s sooner than later always break down and should be taken with a grain of salt. Instead, for an excellent historical survey, I highly recommend George H. Nash’s, “The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945.”5 ### Bill Gram-Reefer is editor and publisher of Halfway To Concord, Contra Costa County’s leading online site for politics, news, and event calendar supporting the community and non-profit social-services in Central County and beyond.

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http://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Intellectual-Movement-America/dp/188292620X Ebonics for Republicans: “A New Conservative Paradigm,” by Thomas G. Del Beccaro; a book review by Bill Gram-Reefer, © 2008 by http://halfwaytoconcord.com page 5