Federal Judiciary

?Throw all the bums out!?

That?s the message one incumbent Republican congressman received from a friendly constituent via e-mail recently. ?I hope this doesn?t happen to you,? the constituent confided, forwarding an anti-Congress message to his congressman. And then added, ?But whatever.?

There?s an anti-Washington mood out there, in other words -- fairly or unfairly, or fairly and unfairly. It used to be joked that voters took the general attitude, ?Throw the bums out, just not mine!? But these days, Congress is consistently held in low esteem in public-opinion polls. Even if most Americans appreciate the virtues and records of their particular congressmen, many voters have been too disappointed by politics and politicians in general to care all that much who gets swept up in the tea-party tide.

The recipient of the ?but whatever? e-mail gets it. So does the Republican leadership. Which is why they?d like you to log onto AmericaSpeakingOut.com.

The website?s reason for being is explained this way: ?America deserves a Congress that respects the priorities of the people. Unfortunately, Washington hasn?t been listening. Let?s change that. America Speaking Out is your opportunity to change the way Congress works by proposing ideas for a new policy agenda. Republicans have offered solutions, and we have our principles, but this is a new venue for us to listen to you. So Speak Out.? Or, as California congressman Kevin McCarthy, who spearheaded the project, explained it: ?This is an open community and a debate of ideas; you submit the idea, you debate the idea, you put it into your network, and you?ll continue to have that dialogue.?

America Speaking Out comes at the perfect time. We all remember the town halls of last summer where, across the country, people let their congressmen know exactly what they thought of the health-care push from Washington. That unpopular, unwieldy, paradigm-shifting legislation is now an unpopular, unwieldy, paradigm-shifting law. Republicans are hoping that voters will once again speak out about their unhappiness with the ruling party in Washington. This time, they hope, voters will be able to feel like an active, vocal part of the solution by interacting with, helping form the agenda of, and voting in November for the opposition.

The approach is born out of a certain amount of humility, too. In a Facebook posting, Sarah Palin, queen of the tea party if there is one, endorsed the effort: ?From the bailouts to the wasteful stimulus spending bill to the $2.5 trillion health care take over, Washington stopped listening to us average everyday hardworking Americans#...#so we?re doing something about that.? Another way of putting it might be: ?We know you?re mad, and you?ve been mad at Republicans as much as Democrats along the way. We get it, and we want you to make sure we change things.?

Is America Speaking Out a gimmick? Sure it is. But having been elected to the majority in the House before -- during the 1994 so-called revolution -- Republicans know that gimmicks without substance and follow-through are meaningless, even disastrous. It?s why Republicans aren?t in the majority now, and they know it. If they screw it up again, they?ll deserve every loss they?re dealt, as John Boehner, the presumptive speaker of the House if Republicans do win the majority in the House in November, says openly and consistently. They?ll deserve to be in the minority.

One veteran of the 1994 revolution tells me, ?Times are different than they were back in 1994, when Newt and Dick could descend from the mountaintop with the ten tablets of the Contract, take out some ads in TV Guide and Reader?s Digest, hold a mass event on the steps of the Capitol, and expect everyone to sign on.?

He continues, ?Trust in government is at a 50-year low, incumbent is a four-letter word, and the Republican party remains in the dumps, so the approach to devising an agenda must take that new environment into consideration. Of course, it may unfold in an entirely uncharted direction!?

That?s a gamble Republicans probably have to take. Given that America Speaking Out is actually their website and the agenda will be theirs at the end, it?s not all that dramatic a gamble. It?s also not so dramatic a gamble precisely because it suggests Republicans -- at least in the leadership -- are already doing a good bit of listening. They recognize the new, civically active environment. They also see that tea-party anger isn?t simply hostility to Washington or government. Poll after poll suggests the tea-party movement reflects center-right -- conservative -- values. These should be Republican voters.

America Speaking Out suggests confidence about exactly that. Rather than an empty vessel seeking direction, the House GOP stamps the site with commitments to ?limited, more accountable government; economic freedom; lower taxes; fiscal responsibility; protecting life, American values, and the Constitution; and providing for strong national security.? Further, they tell you that, in these Obama-Pelosi years, Republicans in the House have not only said no to bad ideas but have offered alternatives on health care, spending, jobs, regulatory reform, energy, and other issues. It?s a bummer most of those ideas aren?t taken seriously, but it?s not the stuff of bums.

Americans are speaking out, and, increasingly, Republicans on Capitol Hill are taking responsibility for the things in Washington that have angered their constituents. Power may corrupt, but, having seen too many in their caucus go down that road in the past, they know it?s what losers do. It?s a long road to November yet, but it?s not a bad way to jump into summer.

-- Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online. She can be reached at klopez@nationalreview.com.

Full post as published by Bench Memos - National Review Online on May 31, 2010 (boomark / email).