ARLINGTON, VA— ICYMI: Republicans have a chance to hand voters the sharpest contrast in a generation — real economic freedom versus the left’s growing embrace of total government control. In a new USA Today op-ed, Americans for Prosperity CEO Emily Seidel makes the case that the GOP should seize it: deregulation, spending cuts, and an end to corporate welfare, not a watered-down version of the left’s agenda.
When Republicans lead with freedom instead of chasing Democrats into a bigger-government bidding war, they win — because a party in the midst of a full embrace of socialism will always outbid a GOP that tries to play the same game.
Read the op-ed below.
GOP plays a game they’re doomed to lose. Here’s what will win.
The GOP push for bigger government in the form of higher spending, higher taxes and higher corporate welfare is a difference of degree, not kind, from socialism’s demand for total government control.
Emily Seidel
Will Republicans learn the right lesson from the Democratic Party’s civil war?
That’s the question as democratic socialists continue to gain ground in Democratic primaries. The latest democratic socialist-backed candidate to win is Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive who won in Michigan’s Senate primary on Aug. 4. More democratic socialist candidates romped to victory in New York and Colorado over the summer.
Now democratic socialists are hoping state Rep. Francesca Hong can become Wisconsin Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee Aug. 11.
Establishment Democrats are terrified that socialists have the momentum in their party, but the bigger issue is whether Republicans will give voters a real choice between government control and economic freedom.
The Democratic Party isn’t the only one lurching leftward at a rapid pace. Many of the most vocal Republicans are moving away from the party’s longstanding commitment to limited government and light intervention in the private sector.
On the one hand, the GOP’s greatest achievements under President Donald Trump have been massive deregulation and the permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts – praiseworthy policies that will do Americans untold good.
On the other hand, some Republicans have offered support for expanding Obamacare, union-backed labor mandates, broad and costly trade tariffs, and even a massive tax hike to fund Social Security without actually making the program solvent.
It’s easy to see the political appeal. In an anxious economic moment, top-down intervention looks like action – a way to show voters you’re fighting for them. That appeal is an illusion, however. These policies don’t deliver the prosperity or opportunity they promise, just more economic pain.
At the most practical level, these Republicans are committing political malpractice.
The GOP’s push for bigger government – in the form of higher spending, higher taxes and higher corporate welfare – is a difference of degree, not kind, from the socialist demand for total government control. Voters are smart enough to realize when politicians criticize their opponents for things they’ve done or advocated themselves. They can easily spot hypocrisy.
This is also a game the GOP is doomed to lose. When it comes to government intervention in the economy, the left will always – always – outbid the right.
Democratic socialists, to say nothing of traditional Democrats, will inevitably propose spending more taxpayer money on favored industries and causes, raising taxes even higher, and doing more to prop up labor unions at workers’ expense.
A growing number of Republicans are showing varying levels of interest in all these traditionally leftist ideas.
Yet if voters are asked to choose between a tepid endorsement of big government and a bold embrace of socialism, many will understandably ask why they shouldn’t just go all the way.
Republicans need a competing and contrasting vision – one that actually delivers for Americans. The GOP should unashamedly rally around individual and economic freedom, while unabashedly contrasting that freedom with the socialist vision of government control.
To their credit, President Trump and Republican leaders are loudly criticizing the left’s socialist turn after the recent primaries. Still, it’s even more important for the GOP to offer an aggressive policy agenda that would unshackle the economy and lift up the electorate.
Practically, this means criticizing a socialist wealth tax in one breath and calling for deep spending cuts and even deeper deregulation with the next. It means decrying socialist plans for nationalization of services, while promising an end to corporate welfare and government-granted monopolies in everything from utilities to health care.
And yes, a freedom agenda would disavow broad and unilateral tariffs, not least because lower border levies would lower costs for Americans.
It’s not too late for enterprising candidates to shake up the midterm elections. It’s certainly not too early for Republicans to wake up to the political realities that will shape the next presidential race in two years.
As socialism continues to rise, Democrats are all but guaranteed to run on an unprecedented and unjust platform of government control, with all its attendant assault on liberty.
It would be good for Republicans – to say nothing of America itself – if the GOP gave voters the chance to choose a proven vision of freedom.
Emily Seidel is the chief executive officer of Americans for Prosperity.
Through broad-based grassroots outreach, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is driving long-term solutions to the country’s biggest problems. AFP activists engage friends and neighbors on key issues and encourage them to take an active role in building a culture of mutual benefit, where people succeed by helping one another. AFP recruits and unites activists in all 50 states behind a common goal of advancing policies that will help people improve their lives. For more information, visit www.AmericansForProsperity.org
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