Platform for prosperity

Today's Wall Street Journal details efforts by the Colorado Republican party to make common cause with the Tea Party movement. To this end the party recently unveiled a set of principles it says all its candidates will abide by to further conservative goals. According to the article the highlights of this "Platform for Prosperity" are:

Color me less than impressed. In fact, this is just sad. Of the ten items outlined, two of them -- the first and last -- aren't even plans for action but rather statements of what the party will not do. Are they really so bereft of ideas that they must define themselves by what they are opposed to than what ideas they support?

What on earth does the third point have to do with limited government or conservative values? And have the Republicans really sunk to co-opting Democratic rhetoric about government spending being "investments"? Truly pathetic.

The fourth point shows a real lack of ambition. Serious health reform would not attempt to make employer-provided health care portable, but rather would seek to sever the connection between employment and health care. Introducing portability is simply another burden for business and helps to calcify the current system.

I like the fifth point, which is long overdue, but what does the sixth even mean? "Responsible development" of Colorado's energy development? This is opaque and meaningless.

The seventh point is good, but where is the support of vouchers? Points eight and nine have little to do with limited government -- indeed, eight is another burden on business -- and are instead sops to various party factions.

Where is the truly bold thinking? Solutions meant to address the true ills which face this country? Where are proposals for regulatory reform? Restoring personal freedom through a re-examination of drug policy (which diverts police resources)? A simplified tax code? Outsourcing government functions where possible?

If this is symptomatic of the national Republican party and the narrow thinking taking place in party corridors then Republicans deserve to wander the Sinai a bit longer.

The platform -- and a similar negative view -- can be viewed in its entirety here.