What To Do Now? My Libertarian Point Of View

Now that Democrats have won Congress, what would I like them to do?

Simple: Restore checks and balances, which the White House (with the help of the former Republican Congress) has been quietly undermining and circumventing for years now. Curtail the use of signing statements, an overemphasis of war powers, and rewriting rules and conventions to better consolidate power in the Executive Branch. Make sure that the White House is following the rules on wiretapping, domestic surveillance, and the Geneva Conventions. Insist that they shut down the secret prisons and prisoner renditions and extrajudicial activities.

Additionally: Undo and repeal some of the more Stalinist bills that have been passed by Congress recently, such as the torture bill and the Military Commissions Act which suspended habeus corpus for military detainees. Take a long, hard look at The Patriot Act, and scale it back in the places you think necessary.

Additionally: Work with the President — or force him if you have to — on bringing the Iraq mess in for a well-controlled crash landing. That's probably the best we can hope for, and with a new Secretary of Defense, we might actually get it. Work with the President on making sure that terrorists can't operate in America by making our ports and borders and our public transportation networks more secure. Insist that the President work alongside other countries in combatting the roots and causes of terrorism, and ask him to seek advice from all corners and all people in how to best stop Muslims from embracing the Islamic extremism that leads to terrorism.

Finally: Raise taxes if you have to, cut spending because you must, and use fiscal responsibility to make real decreases in the budget deficit and national debt. Please do your best to reign in the massive expenditures we have seen. At the same time, try to see what you can do about really cleaning up New Orleans.

I'm not really that interested in "subpoenas" and "hearings" and "fact finding missions" per se. If laws were broken, fine. If criminal activity needs to be punished, fine. If it's going to turn into the "How Stupid Were The Republicans Before We Came Along?" show on Capitol Hill, then I'm not interested in watching.

We all know the Republicans made a mess of a lot of things. We have hired the Democrats to clean it up. Now, I urge the Democrats to keep it simple and try to get back a little harmony, cooperation, and bipartisanship in government. I hope the Democrats don't take advantage of this time to return fire, cause resentment, be petty or vengeful. I hope that they just fix what is broken, and return common sense and (yes, indeed) proper conservatism to Washington.

(Oh... and if the Republican minority of the upcoming 110th Congress should prove that they have learned nothing from their recent election losses, and insist on voting on moral/religious issues like abortion, the Pledge of Allegiance, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, or broadcast indecency, you have my permission to join your 230 collective Democratic voices in one loud, hearty, derisive laugh.)