Why Not Grab the Steering Wheel? 
By Robert Maynard

In our May 27 edition of this site we linked to a VermontTiger.com article by Emerson Lynn entitled: "Accelerators vs. the brakes".  In this article he compared the Democrat controlled legislature to an accelerator who wants to charge full speed ahead with things like government provided health care, etc. He compared Governor Douglas to the brakes, in that the function he serves is to slow down the thrust of the Democratic controlled Senate so that we do not go too far too fast and find ourselves in a financially unsustainable situation. As Lynn points out "It’s hope pitched against fear.   And it’s a political thread, that when pulled, unravels the curtain behind which most of us hide.  Our natural inclination is to opt for security, which is something we’ve never really had, but something that seems less tangible today than yesterday."

The problem with Governor Douglas’ position is that "He is vulnerable to the complaint that people want to be told what can be done, not what can’t be done." Lynn goes on to point out that: "He is doubly vulnerable because the Legislature often puts him in the position where he has no recourse but to reject. That’s his job. He is the brake. Being the brake isn’t as enticing as being the accelerator.

And that is the argument being posed by Democrat Gaye Symington and Progressive Anthony Pollina. With either, Vermont doesn’t have a brake. With either, everyone in Montpelier would be on the same page.

Full steam ahead. No barriers.

Good visual.

But Vermonters are naturally suspicious of clear sailing. If the governor were to wax Reaganesque and proclaim it’s morning again in Vermont, we’d ask for a medical review."

In this scenario, it looks like Governor Douglas and the GOP is in a catch 22 situation. My question is why are we even engaged in a battle of hope vs. fear? Why does the Democratic message of "hope" create anxiety which causes us to seek security? Could it be because it is a message of false hope that is leading us off a financial cliff? Instead of countering this message of false hope with fear and an appeal to security, why not counter with an alternative message of genuine hope? Not Reagan’s "Morning in America" theme as an incumbent in 1984, but his 1980 campaign call to reverse course from the destructive direction that Carter was taking. Or, the 1994 GOP "Contract With America" approach.

Forget about the brake, it’s well past time that we grabbed the steering wheel and changed our direction, not merely slowing the rate at which we are traveling in our current direction. In that May 27 edition of this site, we also linked to an article entitled "The Next American Frontier".

The article points out that Americans were always a people who sought out new frontiers but many believe that there are no more frontiers. The author suggests that "The Next American Frontier" is entrepreneurship and that "The developed world is entering the Internet era. And the United States, once again at the vanguard, is on the verge of becoming the world's first Entrepreneurial Nation."

With this new shift comes a revival of the almost forgotten American virtue of self reliance "Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job." If a growing number of our young people are more confident that they can secure their own future better than an employer can, what makes us think that the future generation will see security in an attempt by our government to play an eerie combination of mommy and daddy? Not only is such a path financially unsustainable, but it is a MAJOR obstacle to Vermonters pursuing "The Next American Frontier".

Lynn is right in that "people want to be told what can be done, not what can’t be done", but why can’t it be individual citizens and the flexible and voluntary institutions of Civil Society that are doing most of what needs to be done rather than an inflexible and bloated government bureaucracy? Instead of driving those seeking the new frontier elsewhere, why can’t Vermont be a place where people are leading the way?

What Douglas and the GOP needs to do is to roll out a "Contract With Vermont" in this next election cycle, where they pledge not merely to slow the current rush to oblivion, but to change course and allow Vermonters to be pioneers once again.
 

Robert Maynard is the Editor of the True North website