Bill Kristol, in his New York Times column, argues for Republican timidity in fighting big government. His reason? Conservative Republicans have achieved little in that regard, since “in the real world of Republican governance…there aren’t a whole lot of small-government Republicans,” and “talk of small government may be music to conservative ears, but it’s not to the public as a whole.”
So what? That just means that the fight will be much harder than advocates of small government have envisioned to date. That’s a reason to redouble efforts, not give up. Kristol concludes:
I can’t help but admire some of my fellow conservatives’ loyalty to the small-government cause. It reminds me of the nobility of Tennyson’s Light Brigade, as it charges into battle: “Theirs but to do and die.” Maybe it would be better, though, first to reason why.
Conservatives long ago reasoned why the fight for small government must be fought. Now the reasoning to be done is not why, but how.
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Ivan, I agree that fighting for what you view to be right should be the focus of anyone working in the political field, not what's politically expedient. Certainly compromises have to be made, but throwing away your core values because they aren't popular isn't a compromise, it's surrender.
Kristol has decided to embrace, the “God, guns, and butter” approach to conservative that Jon Henke had suggested may be the way some Republicans react to Obama's election. This is the same approach taken by conservatives in continental Europe like Germany's Christian Democrats.
Thankfully, many others in the larger conservative movement have seen the reality, both the political reality and the harsher reality of what big-government has done and is doing to our country. Groups that had run to Bush's compassionate conservativism are running back torward groups like CEI. Groups that opposed the bailouts (both bank and auto), opposed expansions of government under Bush, and will continue to do so.
Not only do the vast majority of Americans oppose the bailouts–they're also genuinely bad policy. So too are the products of big government conservativism that Kristol cites as its victories.
I feel sorry for Mr. Kristol. Certainly he's a good writer and at times an interesting thinker, but he's now a man without any real political convictions.
Observing that there is a ratchet on the size of Governmennt just says that the ratchet has to be attacked first. In the case of America, the MSM is weakening.
I've heard a lot of “why.” The posts on this site give great arguments. I also follow the posts from the Cato Institute.
I picked up Ron Paul's book “The Revolution.” There is a title that sounds like a call to arms if any ever did. Unfortunately it seems to also be mostly “why.” Other than voting for candidates who don't win and blogging for people who already agree with us, what do we do? Who can answer the “how” question?
As to how, past that book around to people(ron paul s book)take a chance and discuss it with clients.yeah i know ,your not supposed to talk politics with clients but i do it anyways,and to my surprise prob 60 percent of them liked him in the primaries and quit a few actualy voted for him(this is in so cal los angeles area no less)and make a note of it when the results dont show this. then make a big stink over it write to your paper ect.sure he's well known on the net but many older folks are'nt realy aware. So educate them already.We realy dont have much more left to lose. the gov is way out of control.
The crooks are at it again or still I should say. We should have NEVER trusted the Republicans at all; since it was a Republican that once said, ” I believe in smaller government. We should shrink so that we can drown it in the bathtub.” It's a crooks game, that all. Of course Bush tried to privatize all the agencies he could while he was in and LOOK at ALL the corruption we have! If some office are bad, it's because we have stinking crooked Republicans running it. Private concerns are best they said, dam sure is when you're skimming the til and putting it your pocket and giving out shoddy trashy goods!
I'm gonna go turn ya'll in for plotting against the government….
Yeah just look at all the coruption,lol. like the gov of ill.and that senator in luisiana.the repubs have done nothing that was'nt preceded by dem policy's that made it all posible.
Republicans made crime 'business as usual'. Shall we compare the number of Republican crooks with Democrat crooks? Oh, and we'll count the perverts and child abusers as well…
COMRATS! The Geist is always right! Become reconciled!
I've heard that Ron Paul endorsed the “constitution party” candidate after dropping out of the primaries. According to their platform “The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations…” So I guess Ron Paul wants adulterers to be stoned to death. Granted, it doesn't take a big government budget to institute vigilante mob violence. Is that the strategy?
If you want to advance your cause, I think the first thing you should do is to ask the wackos and wing-nuts to move along. Of course, that might not leave much of a “base” left over.
The “Leave Us Alone” coalition: serving the Religious Right since 1981.
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We don't need more gov. we need more teeth and workers in our law agencies that enforce the laws on the people that have almost totally destroyed our economy.
The “How” is obvious. We have a beast that is growing exponentially.
The question is do we have the will? Do we have the awareness?
I say no. We don't have a critical mass of people with the nerve, determination and love of freedom to do the obvious: Stop. Feeding. the Beast. The ONLY way to get rid of it now is to starve it.
Whine all you want on the boards, but do YOU have the never to stop feeding the beast?
I didn't think so.