Do You Believe in Small Gov't? Then You're Not a Conservative

[Lemur]

Fascinating article about the Republican identity by a speechwriter and policy adviser to El Presidente. Apparently small-government advocates are fundamentalists. Who knew?

As antigovernment conservatives seek to purify the Republican Party, it is reasonable to ask if the purest among them are conservatives at all. The combination of disdain for government, a reflexive preference for markets and an unbalanced emphasis on individual choice is usually called libertarianism.

[...]

Campaigning on the size of government in 2008, while opponents talk about health care, education and poverty, will seem, and be, procedural, small-minded, cold and uninspired. The moral stakes are even higher. What does antigovernment conservatism offer to inner-city neighborhoods where violence is common and families are rare? Nothing. What achievement would it contribute to racial healing and the unity of our country? No achievement at all. Anti-government conservatism turns out to be a strange kind of idealism—an idealism that strangles mercy.

In other words, just stop it! Stop asking for smaller government and balanced budgets! We're never going to fix everything for everyone that way! The government is obliged to heal broken families and lift entire segments of society out of poverty, and if you're running around, spouting off your selfish libertarian rhetoric, you're "small-minded, cold and uninspired."

[edit]

Ouch! Another source disses libertarians as electorally impotent. Double-ouch!

President Bush's share of the libertarian vote dropped precipitously between 2000 and 2004. But, during that time, Bush's total share of the vote rose by almost 3 percent. So, however many voters were turned off by the prescription-drug bill or the Patriot Act, many more were turned on. This demonstrates the obvious (to nonlibertarians, anyway) point that wooing a small bloc with unpopular views is not a sound political strategy. Likewise, if Democrats were to denounce psychiatry and quote endlessly from the works of L. Ron Hubbard, they could jack up their share of the Scientologist vote, but it probably wouldn't help their overall popularity.