By Jon Kraushar
Communications Consultant
For those searching for a theme to counter the return of the era of big government, big spending, big deficits and big pork projects, how about returning to the idea that “small is beautiful”?
If Republicans want to restore their credibility (as reformed spendaholics, as fiscally responsible and as constructive rather than just being obstructionist), let them rally America around the theme that “small is beautiful” as in small government, small business, small taxes, and even the smallest decisions made by individuals rather than large, intrusive one-size-fits-all, top down decisions made by bureaucrats and elitists.
Small (as in single) individuals making big (as in consequential) choices and pursuing big dreams in concert with their families, neighbors, co-workers, customers and other like-minded people is the process that has made our country great. The crisis that is corroding America is a crisis of trust and confidence and the solution to that crisis is the exact opposite of that coming from President Obama.
The president wants to upsize government control over our lives (witness his 2010 budget), with a breathtakingly huge expansion of government spending of our money and of government’s role in mandating markets rather than letting markets operate freely. We are looking at government running and directing banks, businesses, insurance companies, automakers and other private entities-and the price tag is gargantuan. We are being told that government will take over our choices regarding our health care and the education of our children.
But getting America moving again requires downsizing control-transferring it from the federal level to the state, the local and the individual level. We don’t trust Big Brother. But we can trust ourselves and we can trust the small circle of people and institutions that directly touch our lives.
Let’s break it down to the manageable rather than build it up to the unmanageable. If banks or car companies for example have grown “too big to fail” and they keep failing, let’s help them succeed by letting them become smaller. If they can’t restructure or regenerate themselves at their present size then they need to break themselves up by selling parts of their operations, renegotiating with their shareholders, employees, lenders-whomever- so that they get rightsized, which may mean that they exist in a new form or even cease to exist.
It is one thing for responsible, law-abiding, bill-paying, tax-paying citizens to be their brothers’ keepers and to subsidize individuals, institutions or even businesses that are in trouble. If they decide to do that out of charity, fine. But big becomes bad when big means that responsible, prudent, play-by-the-rules people are forced to feed Big Brother and Big Problems not of their own making. Unchallenged, Big Brother will take us for all we are worth financially-and will do so with moral casuistry (bad outcomes hiding behind supposedly good intentions).
Full article is here: http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/02/27/kraushar_small_is_beautiful/
