Republicans have announced a new “Pledge to America,” a deliberate reference to the 1994 “Contract with America” which helped propel Republicans into control of the House of Representatives. The 1994 Contract did not bind the Republican Party, but only House Republicans who signed it. The Contract did not promise to pass legislation — the incoming Speaker of the House starting in January 1995, Newt Gingrich himself — pointed out before the election that Republicans in control of the House could not promise to pass legislation, even through the House. The Contract, instead, promised to bring measures up for a vote in the House, a relatively simple and straightforward pledge that was completely honored down to the letter of the Contract.
The Contract also was short. It fit on one page. The new “Pledge to America” is very different.
The core problem is not an out-of-touch government acting without the consent of the governed. The problem is a philosophy toward government which allows the unconstitutional usurpation of power from sovereign states and from individual citizens. Violations of constitutional government may often be very popular. We should hope, as Americans, that we have learned that government, particularly the federal government, has absolute limits on what it may do, regardless of the will of the majority, but the tyranny of the majority is just as wrong as the tyranny of the few.
Perhaps an America that has been so separated from its foundational principles needs to be enticed back into limited government, particularly at the federal level. There is nothing wrong with advocating a halt to increases in discretionary spending, insisting that federal legislation have at least a nominal connection to constitutional authority, keeping current tax rates from rising, and the like. All those policies, however, once enacted will only move us a bit closer to the Constitution: marginal reform will not complete the necessary journey home for America.
