For Young Republicans, the Government Is the Enemy

The “young guns” in the Republican Party are refusing to give up in the battle over the U.S. budget. Stubbornness is seen as having a backbone and every compromise represents a betrayal.

Everyone who is having trouble understanding where Republican negotiators stand in the debate over raising the U.S. debt ceiling is in good company. Neither voters nor commentators can make any sense of what Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor really mean with their dissonant chorus.

This dissonance among Republicans is causing political struggles and a generational divide. The young — who demand all or nothing — are made up of the 87 freshman representatives elected to the House in November 2010 on a wave of Tea Party Movement anger. They came to Washington to “muck out the stall.” Any compromise is a betrayal of their principles: Government should be reduced to the point of insignificance and personal freedom comes only through a free marketplace.

Eric Cantor, second-in-command among Republicans in the House of Representatives, after John Boehner, is the leader of these young guns. He exhibited a lack of respect during the negotiations by interrupting the president three times during his closing comments, earning him a rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who called him “childish.”

That’s exactly what Cantor wants — remaining stubborn is his way of showing he has backbone. This comes in contrast to John Boehner, who wanted to negotiate a big solution, only to be stopped short by Cantor and his Tea Party Movement guerillas.

It also comes in contrast to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, who recognizes the danger threatening Republicans if the United States is unable to pay its bills after August 2. “I refuse to help Barack Obama get re-elected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy,” McConnell said. He then proposed a political trick that would look like a compromise but would, in effect, put all the blame on Obama for raising the debt limit. That trap was supposed to exculpate Republicans.

Meanwhile, other older Republicans, including John McCain, are warning against making the same mistake that backfired on Republicans in 1995 when the government shut down twice and they were subsequently punished by voters in the following election.

Ideological solidarity is great as long as pensions and social services aren’t endangered. Republican voters calling for trillions of dollars in cuts to the federal budget will get old someday, too. And increasing numbers of “baby boomers” are now seen as persistent and demanding, regardless of their political inclinations.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was openly self-critical, saying that over the past three months the Republicans have made a big deal of the debt limit, constantly making threats. Now the president and the voters have taken them at their word, which puts the pressure on them. “We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves,” said Graham.

All arguments end when dogma speaks. Eric Cantor, the Tea Party Movement and a number of Republicans fervently believe in the mantra that lower taxes, cuts to social programs and elimination of “luxury amenities” like the Environmental Protection Agency can save the country.

Two wars during the George W. Bush administration strained the budget and Republicans in Congress voted to raise the debt limit on ten separate occasions. Among those representatives who protested those raises was an Illinois senator named Barack Obama.