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Sometimes a Republican conservative says something that really resonates. We know there are Republican conservatives out there who are not following the destroy-the-government, anti-Obama political script. These contrarians are out there and sometimes their ideas trickle into the media. Even some Republicans tightly in the grip of current Republican orthodoxy have flashing moments of common sense. When it happens, we must consider the chance that the development portends a possible road to recovery for the Republican Party.

On February 14, 2013, Republican conservative Congressman John J. Duncan, 2^nd District of Tennessee, delivered a speech on the floor of the House in which he observed that whenever the government steps in to assist people, the price for whatever service the government assist with skyrockets.  Education, medical care, prescription drugs, eggs and milk—the government steps in to provide assistance and prices zoom toward the stratosphere. The American people, on a gut-level, already know this of course. The Republican orthodoxy is that the government should get out of the business of providing assistance or at least scale back the level of assistance to only the few. Privatize Social Security: send Medicaid administration to the States, yada, yada, yada.  Liberals and Democrats argue that assistance should be provided simply on the basis of need.

Is there no middle-ground in this?  Can’t we all just get along?  (This last question is for rhetorical purposes only.)  The way liberals and Democrats are handling the cost-service problem leads to a vicious circle.  The more assistance provided by the government, the more assistance is needed.  The middle-class, left to their own devices (income), is simply priced out of the market for medical services, education, and increasingly, even food: the price-spiral thing. The liberal approach leads to an America in which there is red-ink as far as the eyes can see and a flat-line economy awaiting the economic ascendancy of India, or China, or some other.

On the other hand, if current Republican orthodoxy has its way, America takes on the look, feel, and politics of a Banana Republic where anything and everything that is exportable, including jobs, is exported and there simply is no middle class, only the very rich and the humble, wide-eyed and uncomprehending poor.

Well, there is a middle ground.  The middle-ground involves going back to the basics.  But first, both Republicans and Democrats must recognize that there are basics to the economic life of the American republic. The recognition will occur: perhaps without a Republican Party. That little speech by Congressman Duncan is a sign that “the basics” are in the air. Even during the 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” remark was a glimpse into the mysterious collective will of the People where common sense trumps ideology and orthodoxy.  Two remarks, one by a very, very conservative congressman, and the other by a liberal President. All that is needed to join the two and subdue the noise about America’s economy is an architect.  That architect is not, to date, President Obama and it certainly isn’t the panic-prone Tea Party wing of the Republican Party.