Romney’s Choice of Paul Ryan Nationalizes Election

Governor Mitt Romney’s choice of the more conservative Paul Ryan as his running mate adds many strengths to the Republican ticket, but none more than the mere fact that Ryan’s presence on the ticket assures that this will be a nationalized election – an election about the big issues facing this country.

The liberal media never asks the Democrats to move to the center.  However, they always demand that – after a primary season of appealing to grassroots conservatives by advocating limited constitutional government – once the nomination is secured, the Republican candidate must switch gears and join the Democrats in a campaign based on who will be the best at dividing-up the spoils extracted from producers by the welfare state.

This recipe for Republican defeat is what the political elite calls “pivoting toward the center” i.e. going back on your promises in what most Americans outside the Beltway would call lying to get yourself elected.

Voters know Democrats are the party of pork and government largess; if the election is allowed to be a bidding war for who is going to use the most taxpayer money to hand out more free stuff and fund more “stimulus projects,” Democrats will almost always prevail.

Despite his advisors’ ideas about shaking the Etch-A-Sketch after the GOP Convention, by selecting Ryan as his running mate Romney seems to be rejecting the pivot toward the center advice that has doomed other Republican presidential candidates.

While a nationalized election doesn’t guarantee every Republican will win, if the election IS nationalized Republican chances are much, much better – think 2009 when Scott Brown was elected in Massachusetts, Chris Cristie was elected in New Jersey and Bob McDonald was elected in Virginia running in opposition to the Democrat’s national agenda.

This year, when over 70% of those surveyed tell Gallup that big government is the greatest threat to freedom, if the election is about the size and scope of government and its role in the lives of everyday citizens, and the conservative social agenda, Republicans have both history and the issues on their side.

As former Reagan administration official Jeffery Bell noted in, "The Case for Polarized Politics," social conservatism has a winning track record for the GOP.

"Social issues were nonexistent in the period 1932 to 1964," Bell wrote. "The Republican Party won two presidential elections out of nine, and they had the Congress for all of four years in that entire period. . . . When social issues came into the mix – I [Bell] would date it from the 1968 election . . . the Republican Party won seven out of 11 presidential elections."

Paul Ryan’s 100% right-to-life voting record and Governor Romney’s strong statement in support of the traditional family after Obama endorsed same-sex marriage, and Democrats announced plans to put a plank favoring same-sex marriage in their platform, nationalizes this election on the social issues.

Paul Ryan’s selection as the vice presidential nominee gives hope to conservatives that Governor Romney plans to fight the battle with Obama on the GOP’s strongest ground: the conservative social agenda, the size and scope of government, how much government impacts job creation and economic activity, and the moral choice we make when we pass along $16 trillion in debt to future generations of Americans.

And where Ryan’s addition to the ticket really matters is the stark choice about the future size and scope of the federal government it will give voters.

Liberals can never give up the idea that taxpayer-funded budgets are anything more than a pie to be divided-up among various special interest groups.  The notion that the voters and taxpayers might decide in favor of small government constitutional conservative policies and reject big government simply doesn’t compute in the liberal mind.

So count on Democrats to attack Paul Ryan on his plan to reform the federal budget, and when they do this election will become a nationalized election about big government.  This is great news for Republicans because, as 2009 and 2010 demonstrated, a nationalized election about the size and scope of government is the best hope for a Republican victory, not just against Obama, but in elections for the Senate, the House and other offices right down to State Houses and City Halls.

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