“All rise for the Rehnquist court” was the headline to our cover
story announced in October 1986. It’s nice to have Justices
Rehnquist and Scalia again on our cover — and even nicer to have
been proved right. Those two changed the direction of the high
court, and with the addition of several younger conservative
justices, including John Roberts, the late Rehnquist’s successor as
chief justice, the slight conservative majority has more than held
its own, as our publisher and longtime Court watcher and quietly
upbeat conservative Al Regnery observes in his reflections on the
enduring Rehnquist-Scalia legacy (p. 14).
Perhaps nicest of all was that back in October 1986, in the wake
of Rehnquist and Scalia’s recent confirmations, we wrote in the
kicker line to our cover story, “Liberals are right to worry.”
Indeed, for all their fulminating and dirty play, they ultimately
couldn’t prevent the emergence of a center-right Court in a
center-right country.
Understable worry about the right remains a constant in the
liberals’ political demeanor. Even at the moment of their greatest
triumphs they can’t seem to relax. Think back to the elections of
2008, which left them with not only the greatest president in the
White House since Abraham Lincoln, but indecently huge majorities
in Congress. Republicans and the right appeared in worse shape than
Napoleon’s men on their withdrawal from Russia in 1812. So how did
the left respond? By obsessing about Republicans and the right at
every turn, as if finally willing to prove Barry Goldwater right by
conceding, “In our hearts we know they’re right.” Never has a
center-right remnant enjoyed greater prestige than when it came to
symbolize the only barrier between sanity and a mad Democratic
lurch to the left.
It has since replenished its ranks, which are expected to swell
come November 2. We shall see. (George Melloan’s deft reading — p.
36 — sets the stage.) Short-term political changes are important
enough, but, as Democrats are discovering, they can prove
ephemeral. Infinitely more important, as we saw with the Rehnquist
court, is setting in motion lasting, long-term shifts, and this is
where the center-right should be at a clear advantage. We saw just
why at the recent so-called health care summit, at which “Mr.
President” thought he could ride roughshod over “Lamar” and “Mitch”
and “Paul” — a huge problem from the get-go because he also had
the likes of “Harry” and “Nancy” representing his side. But
Republicans would have carried the day even if having to contend
only with his bullying, dissembling, and pulling rank. The reason
is simple. Political posturing is no substitute for sound
ideas.
President Obama is left with one argument — he won big in 2008,
and thus deserves to win on the
one issue close to his heart, public opinion and his party’s future
be damned, not to mention the state of the nation’s fisc, facing
unprecedented deficits under his insistence on policies that can
only deepen the nation’s economic crisis.
Naturally, aside from a few harrumphs he had no answer
whatsoever to the most noteworthy of the Republican presentations
at Blair House. For when “Paul” — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks
(“Hiding spending does not reduce spending.” “This bill adds a new
health care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay
for the entitlements we already have.” “There really is a
difference between us”), people are starting to listen. Even at the
New York Times Magazine, which on the eve of the summit
featured him in its Sunday interview.
Our Phil Klein, now one of the nation’s top health care
reporters, has been listening all along. This month (p. 20) he
introduces Ryan’s “Roadmap,” the single most important Republican
document since the Contract with America and infinitely more
compelling because it’s less about the GOP’s political fortunes
than about the nation’s economic survival. If other Republicans do
not join in this debate, that survival cannot be assumed. A country
that continues to commit to one entitlement after another without
the means to pay for any of them is not long for this modern
world.
