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31 Oct 2006 01:48 pm

Vote For Gridlock

Here's one reason for conservatives not to be afraid sitting out this election or voting Democratic. Gridlock! The best government we've had in recent times was the Clinton-Gingrich face-off. They restrained the worst in each other, brought out the best, and gave us welfare reform, peace, and fiscal surpluses. Bush worked well with another party in Texas. He'll not be so comfortable in Washington. But simply checking the current abuse of executive power will force these people to face reality in Iraq, and make the government less liable to do so much harm, especially to the Constitution. Bruce Bartlett makes the case here. Money quote:

I think the American people like divided government. They don't trust either party to run the whole show and believe deeply in the separation of powers that the Founding Fathers established in the Constitution. To most people, dividing government by political party is just another way of separating power.

Bill Niskanen of the Cato Institute points out that every war in American history that lasted more than a few weeks was authorized by a unified government. It's also worth noting that every major entitlement program - the spending programs that are bankrupting the country - was enacted by unified governments.

The great strength of the American system is its capacity for divided government. If there was ever a time for it, it's now.

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