This week, I heard a conservative commentator “admitting” that Republicans don’t do enough for black voters. “Why don’t conservatives offer solutions?” asked this person.
It bothers me that otherwise-sound conservative thinkers fall into this trap — unwittingly ceding the turf of the debate to their liberal counterparts. The assumption is that unless we offer liberal solutions — catering and pandering specifically to blacks — we have nothing to offer.
Republicans do offer solutions for blacks, just as they offer solutions for all other people. The conservative solution is not to increase government transfer payments to able-bodied people but to pursue policies that will lead to economic growth and opportunity.
Though many liberals would have you believe that efforts to reduce government assistance and dependency programs and to encourage self-sufficiency are heartless, they are in fact more compassionate. Have we learned nothing from a quixotic half-century war on poverty?
At the risk of cliche, it is far more compassionate and humane, as a general proposition, to teach a man to fish than it is to feed him fish. In the long run, it is irresponsible and, yes, cruel to promote policies that result in greater dependency on government for those who don’t need to be dependent.
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