The Wisdom of Santayana

We’ve all learned some paraphrase of the Santayana dictum: “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history will be condemned to repeat them.” Instinctively we know that we should learn from experience. The “School of Hard Knocks” is one we have all attended. That’s why in this mid-term election year we should keep the past in mind. We should try to recall what has been said and done so that we don’t have to suffer taking the course over. Even as we work at the convoluted process of re-electing our incumbent Congress-critters, we should watch carefully the comments and posturing of the Presidential hopefuls.

The Republicans, as we know, hold the Presidency and both Houses of the legislature. That would seem to bestow upon them the burden of performance for virtually all aspects of our American governance. The Democrats have been languishing as the minority party for several years with only the slightest twinge of control when one lonely Senator in a misguided moment changed allegiance in the dark of night and brought the upper house the slimmest of liberal majorities. It is tough to be in the minority and lose control of all of those committee chairmanships. It is difficult to be cast in the oxymoronic role of “loyal opposition.” It is a bitter pill to be always chasing the policy initiatives of the incumbents. That’s why there’s so much blather about retaking the legislature come this November. And that’s why a prudent voter should be paying attention to history.

Here’s a great chunk of James Taranto’s “Best of the Web” blog: Lessons of History: Condensed Version

Within a few minutes of reading, you’ll get a snapshot of the “new and improved”, much more centrist, Hillary (Rodham-or-not) Clinton. She suffers the slings and arrows of her far left base by suggesting bravely that telling your enemy a date certain for quitting is probably not a good strategy. Wow, Sun-Tzu take note!

Then there is a chronological recap of wish-I-was-a-hero-again Senator John Kerry trying to make a firm position for himself as being firmly for surrender in Iraq. Makes one wonder suddenly if the al-Qaeda crowd can get a short term rental of the battleship Missouri for an unconditional document signing photo-op. Who would be the Mullah-in-charge of the ceremony? If one needed any wake-up calls about lessons of history with regard to how Kerry views America, the American military, and the position of the world’s sole superpower as a force for global progress, this should be mandatory reading.

Follow those two glimpses of presidential hopefuls with a few gratuitous shots of how some party leaders in the left think they need to proceed to succeed in the fall election. Imagine Nancy Pelosi finally conceding that they’ve been beating a rather broken drum for the past two years and that maybe they need some real policy initiatives. Is that rocket science? You mean the Dems won’t get elected by simply being “not-Bush”?

Here are some ideas for pols in both parties. They won’t be noticed or adopted, but I’ll feel better for having offered them. Not necessarily in priority order:

1.) Recognize that we are increasingly (and irretrievably) globalized. What happens in Europe, Asia, Africa, S. America and the Middle East impacts us, our economy and our security. Fortress America is not a possibility.

2.) Get serious and stop pandering with regard to immigration reform. We must get a handle on who is in our country. We must penalize employers who don’t document workers. We must drastically increase border security. We can’t send the illegals already here back.

3.) Stop trying to buy votes. Communism is a failed concept. Socialism is only slightly less onerous. Redistribution of wealth is not a substitute for a free market, improved education, individual responsibility and entrepreneurial opportunity. Social safety nets are necessary, but welfare is not and should not be a way-of-life.

4.) Clean house over at the IRS. Nobody, absolutely nobody, can understand the tax laws. Incentives, deductions, exemptions, exclusions, and who-knows-what good ol’ boy paybacks need to be eliminated. One flat rate, possibly slightly graduated to impose a small level of social responsibility on those with more, for all people. Understandability is mandatory.

5.) Resurrect the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Anything that is not expressly delegated to the Federal Government or prohibited from the States/Individual is reserved for the States/Individual.

6.) Start being positive in politics. The issue is not how bad the other guy is, but how good you can be for the nation. Suspend the name-calling, innuendo, witch-hunting and trash-talking. We don’t need it and the only result is continuing deterioration of the political process.

There’s more, but these might be a good start.