The seismic disruptions in the leadership structure of the House of Representatives have invited pundits, eager to declare dysfunction, to pounce on the perceived chaos, civil war, or even all-out anarchy in the Republican Party.
Wishful thinking aside, though, the recent changes are actually an extremely good sign for the party in the long run. They will help Republicans emerge from a period of stagnation into an era of more principled, more representative government.
The past five years have been marked by widespread disappointment in the ability of Republicans to follow through on their campaign promises. The list of grievances aired by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., in his resolution calling for an end to House Speaker John Boehner’s tenure encapsulates many of these complaints.
A leadership that punishes its own members, doesn’t allow adequate time to read bills and forces phony crisis after phony crisis to expand the size and scope of government is not exactly inspiring, and it’s certainly not what people thought they were voting for when they gave Republicans control of Congress.
That leadership has now been put on notice.
It’s easy to credit the House Freedom Caucus with taking down Boehner, and to be sure, members of the caucus deserve plenty of credit, but at its core, this is a movement that sprung from the grassroots. The ability of people to hold lawmakers accountable, and to see and understand the congressional process, is greater than ever before, thanks to technology.
They can’t get away with deals in smoke-filled back rooms anymore. They have to get up and face their constituents, and their constituents are paying attention. What has happened with the leadership elections represents a release of the tremendous energy that has been building up since 2010. The grassroots stood up and with a single voice said: “No more.”
Politics is largely a reflection of public opinion, albeit with a considerable lag time, which is why we now see the emergence of a new generation of lawmakers who are committed to doing things differently. The common thread among many of these congressmen is that they were significantly outraised by their primary opponents. The old paradigm, in which votes were traded for earmarks and pork-barrel projects, no longer applies.
These members of Congress are accountable to their constituents, not to big-money special interests. This is consistent with the overriding principle that the centralization of power is detrimental to freedom. Congress has ceded too much of its authority to the executive branch, and backlash against Boehner’s imperious way of running the House was central to his ousting.
For this reason, the House Freedom Caucus realizes that it is wiser to unify behind a set of principles than behind a personality. Personalities can succumb to temptation and corruption, but principles always remain steadfast. Those principles are what will ultimately force the other side to the negotiating table for a real conversation about fiscal responsibility.
The criticism that fiscal conservatives are unwilling to compromise is unfounded. They’re simply aware that every so-called compromise in recent memory has involved more spending now, with promised cuts in the future — a future that somehow never seems to arrive.
Of course, compromise is an integral part of lawmaking, but you have to negotiate in good faith, and you have to start from a position of strength if you expect to come away with anything real. Expecting fiscal conservatives to be strong negotiators is hardly unreasonable. In fact, it’s essential if we’re going to rein in a national debt that is steadily swallowing up the entire federal budget.
The changes we’re now seeing in the GOP are nothing more than the growing pains of a party starting to find its way in a new millennium. Sure, it’s going to be messy, but when we emerge on the other side, things are going to look a whole lot brighter. The Republican Party isn’t dying; it’s finally becoming what it was always meant to be.
Adam Brandon is the CEO of FreedomWorks.Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
