The Heritage Insider: What we heard at State Policy Network's Annual Meeting

October 8, 2016

 

 

This week we have a few reflections on what we heard at the State Policy Network Annual Meeting in Nashville. Next week we’ll follow up with a few of the nuts-and-bolts lessons we picked up, as well as return to highlighting the interesting studies we find each week.

 

 

How did lambs get into this conversation? Red America and blue America are divided over many things these days: gun control, oil pipelines, wedding cakes and who has to make them. Also, the proper method of castrating lambs. This is what you learn from listening to Mike Rowe. And if you heard him at the State Policy Network Annual Meeting, then you learned it right after dinner. (Don’t say you didn’t see it coming, State Policy Network. His TV shows are called: Dirty Jobs and Somebody’s Gotta Do It.)

The story, in brief, goes this way: While filming an episode of Dirty Jobs on a Colorado sheep ranch, Rowe discovered that what he thought he knew about castrating lambs was all wrong. He observed that the politically correct, humane, PETA-approved method, which involves a rubber band, was clearly causing distress in the first lamb on which it was used. Meanwhile, another lamb who had had his testicles removed in the traditional and prompt fashion had no cares in the world. The suffering of the one lamb bothered Rowe so much, that he agreed to film the rest of the lambs castrated using the traditional method.

When Rowe presented the episode to his minder at the Discovery Channel, she balked at putting it on the air. That’s because the traditional method that the episode depicted involves an act that most viewers would find revolting or at the very least indelicate. (Feel free to check the Dirty Jobs archive if you want to learn more.) After much pleading with the gatekeeper, Rowe realized she hadn’t seen the footage of the suffering lamb. When he showed her the footage and said “Do if for the lamb,” she agreed to let the episode air.

The moral of the story: Telling somebody about a public policy problem isn’t enough. In order to change minds about an issue, you have to show the consequences of the choices for individual people. You have to show how people suffer under bad policy and how they thrive under good policy. In order to change minds, you have to show the lamb.

 

Given political circumstances, what should conservatives think about the country’s prospects? Addressing a lunch session, National Review writer David French sounded a little bit like Winston Churchill rallying the people in the darkest days of World War II. “We cannot guarantee victory, but only deserve it,” said Churchill, and “Deserve Victory” became the motif of an ubiquitous war poster.

Likewise, French reminded his audience that the course of history seems inevitable only in hindsight—only as history. To the participants at the time, outcomes are anything but inevitable. It was not obvious to our country’s Founders, for example, that the American Revolution would succeed. That struggle was a lot messier and dirtier than is usually remembered. And the good guys don’t always win.

But what conservatives can do now, advised French, is make sure they model the virtues they want to project into the culture—and in that way give the culture some protection from politics. The crisis, he explained, is not just political; it is personal; and it is reflected in rising rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and above all the breakdown of the family. Leading by modeling the virtues we want to champion will help us rebuild the family. In that way, aiming to deserve victory might turn out to be a strategy for attaining it as well.

 

Education savings accounts are where the action is. Interest in education savings accounts as the vehicle for bringing choice into education continues to build. Over 60 think tank leaders participated in a three-hour session on the topic on Thursday, following the SPN meeting. Panelists leading the discussion included Lindsey Burke of The Heritage Foundation, Inez Feltscher Stepman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Matthew Ladner of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Starlee Coleman and Katherine Bathgate of School Forward, Jonathan Butcher of the Goldwater Institute, Grant Callen of Empower Mississippi, and Robert Enlow of Ed Choice. Panelists discussed the mechanics of ESAs, implementation opportunities and challenges, messaging, and policy design considerations. Opportunities to advance ESA legislation are expected soon in Oklahoma and Texas. The favored strategy is: Go big—aim for universal eligibility. 

 

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