Thomas Sowell‘s latest column questions Tea Party supporters’ approach to political battles.
The Tea Party’s principles were clear. But their tactics can only be judged by the consequences.
Since the Tea Party sees itself as the conservative wing of the Republican Party, its supporters might want to consider what was said by an iconic conservative figure of the past, Edmund Burke: “Preserving my principles unshaken, I reserve my activity for rational endeavours.”
Fundamentally, “rational” means the ability to make a ratio — that is, to weigh one thing against another. Burke makes a key distinction between believing in a principle and weighing the likely consequences of taking a particular action to advance that principle.
There is no question that the principles of anyone who believes in the freedom of American citizens from arbitrary government dictates like ObamaCare — unauthorized by anything in the Constitution and forbidden by the 10th Amendment — must oppose this quantum leap forward in the expansion of the power of government.
There is nothing ambiguous about the principle. The only question is about the tactics, the Tea Party’s attempt to defund ObamaCare. The principle would justify repealing ObamaCare. So the only reason for the Tea Partyers’ limiting themselves to trying to defund this year was a recognition that repealing it was not within their power.
The only question then is: was defunding ObamaCare within their power? Most people outside the Tea Party recognized that defunding ObamaCare was also beyond their power — and events confirmed that. …
… With the chances of making a dent in ObamaCare by trying to defund it being virtually zero, and the Republican Party’s chances of gaining power in either the 2014 or 2016 elections being reduced by the public’s backlash against that futile attempt, there was virtually nothing to gain politically and much to lose.
However difficult it might be to repeal ObamaCare after it gets up and running, the odds against repeal, after the 2014 and 2016 elections, are certainly no worse than the odds against defunding it in 2013. Winning those elections would improve the odds.
If the Tea Party made a tactical mistake, that is not necessarily fatal in politics. People can even learn from their mistakes — but only if they admit to themselves that they were mistaken. Whether the Tea Party can do that may determine not only its fate but the fate of an America that still needs the principles that brought Tea Party members together in the first place.
