Musings on the Tooth Fairy

In an act of desperation, I suggested to my second-grader that we e-mail the Tooth Fairy. I had forgotten to put money in my daughter’s tooth pillow and to take the tooth she had just lost. We scooped up my BlackBerry and e-mailed to the first e-mail address I could think of for the Tooth Fairy. Creatively, I typed in toothfairy@toothfairy.com. Hey, it was short notice. I didn’t have time to think of anything better. Here is the e-mail we sent:

Dear Toothfairy:

I lost a tooth and I woke up this morning and checked my tooth pillow but my tooth was still there with my little note. Please come tonight if you have time.

Sincerely,

Halley Roy

ps if you do come please take my tooth and leave a surprise.

She was placated and my forgetfulness was hidden. But to my surprise, within a couple of hours we received this e-mail:

Dear Halley,

I am so sorry that I missed you last night. It was really quite a busy night for me as I was completely tied up with an elephant’s tusk in Thailand. I promise to make my best effort to come tonight!

Wishing you a sugar-free day,
The Toothfairy

My wife and I had tears of laughter streaming down our faces at the fact this e-mail address was live. And the response was personal and quite humorous. My daughter was delighted. You should try the Tooth Fairy e-mail some time. I have no idea who is behind it.

Many things can happen before Tuesday’s election, and the presidential race is still winnable for either candidate. However, one thing is certain: after Tuesday, Republicans will have smaller numbers in the House and Senate.

There is no Tooth Fairy in politics to save the party. Rather than waiting for a sprinkle of fairy dust or indulging in too much of the traditional navel-gazing, the GOP stalwarts need new ways to address old values. It isn’t a question of whether the party should move left, right, elect new leaders or abandon old issues.

Instead, this is the time for Republicans to stick with principles that have won the presidency five of the last seven presidential elections and given us House and Senate majorities 12 of the last 14 years. It’s evident that we do, however, need new ways to talk about solid principles.

Trustbusters. Starting with the financial crisis, simply talking about better regulation or tax credits alone won’t convince Americans who are truly scared right now that Republicans have an answer to the turmoil. Republicans should champion the party as the New Trustbusters in Teddy Roosevelt style. Big Business is viewed just as negatively as Big Government. While many couldn’t put their finger on it, people were nervous about the mega-mergers in banking and across multiple business sectors. As trustbusters, rather than regulating our way into more competition, we would foster competition in industries that are now merging at a frightening rate. No more businesses that are “too big to fail” and need taxpayer bailouts. If you fail, there should be hundreds of competitors to pick up where you left off. This would entail more than a free market mantra but competitive principles.

Spending. Republicans started off strong on spending. Remember the balanced budget? But soon, the Grand Old Party outspent even our predecessors and allowed earmarks to become the symbol. And when it comes down to winning the hearts and minds of Americans on spending, they actually do support cutting wasteful spending. It must be fair and require sacrifice from all. Americans look more for a Benjamin Franklin (A penny saved is a penny earned) than a Montgomery Burns. And start with unpopular spending first before attacking Big Bird.

Strong National Defense. After believing the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror were going to be an albatross around the necks of GOP candidates this election cycle, it turns out Iraq barely made a dent in the presidential election. In fact, recent poll show support for the surge in Iraq and equal support for the Iraq war. Stay strong on defense. You could apply the famous P.J. O’Rourke quote to our military as a whole: “The United States Marines have done more to promote world peace than all the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream ever sold.”

Let’s not wait for the wave of the magic wand and an e-mail from cyberspace.