Peter Suderman on the GOP’s Search for an Agenda

Judging
by the speeches at this year’s Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC), the Republican party’s rising stars have decided
that they should talk more about what principles their party stands
for, and what policy ideas they favor, instead of just reiterating
what they oppose.

“We’ve got to start talking about what we’re for. And not what
we’re against,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “We can either
make the choice to keep our head down and not rock the boat, to not
stand for anything or we can stand for principle,” proclaimed Sen.
Ted Cruz (Texas). “We have to explain where we want to take the
country, and how we want to get there,” said Rep. Paul Ryan
(Wisc.). Executed well, the payoff could be huge. “We are literally
on the verge, if we make the right decisions, of a new American
century,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).

Yet even as the parade of GOP bright lights affirmed support for
a positive vision backed by productive policy ideas, most seemed to
struggle to define that vision, or talk clearly about what those
ideas should be. Reason Senior Editor Peter Suderman
writes that the GOP has decided that it should probably stand for
something—yet aside from electing more Republicans, it’s still not
sure what, exactly, that is.

View this article.