August 31, 2004

ARE REPUBLICANS the party of new ideas and smaller government? As recently as four years ago the Wall Street Journal thought it was. Now it's not so sure. Quotable:
The GOP Congress .. has seemed only too comfortable acting as the party of the incumbent status quo, dolloping out pork to any interest group that might help it remain in power. The result has been the largest farm bill in history, as well as the largest new entitlement .. since the 1960s .. If Republicans want to see the perils of this strategy, they might look at the blue patches of the electoral map that are Illinois, New Jersey and Long Island. Once GOP strongholds, those areas all turned [Democratic] after Republican machines grew corrupt and became little different from tax-and-spend Democrats.
UPDATE: George Will on George Bush and the "Redistribution Republicans". Quotable:
The vocabulary of the two-party argument just a generation ago now seems as anachronistic as the 1890s argument about the free coinage of silver. Liberals have next to nothing to say about poverty or .. inner-city schools .. Conservatives .. no longer invest even rhetorical energy in the cause of "small" or "limited" government. And now their presidential nominee wants an even bigger government role in policing speech ..
-- More. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack