I can't think of anyone on the planet who I'd rather see have his own blog than David Boaz. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak a couple of years ago, and I have his book, Libertarianism: A Primer, which I recommend to anybody. This wonderful article in the Washington Post is no surprise. Here are some highlights:
In fact, you could say that what most voters wanted in 2000 was neither Bush nor Gore but smaller government. A Los Angeles Times poll in September 2000 found that Americans preferred "smaller government with fewer services" to "larger government with many services" by 59 to 26 percent.
But that's not what voters got. Leave aside defense spending and even entitlements spending: In Bush's first three years, nondefense discretionary spending -- which fell by 13.5 percent under Ronald Reagan -- has soared by 20.8 percent. His more libertarian-minded voters are taken aback to discover that "compassionate conservatism" turned out to mean social conservatism -- a stepped-up drug war, restrictions on medical research, antigay policies, federal subsidies for marriage and religion -- and big-spending liberalism justified as "compassion."
David must have been reading this blog.
Posted by Walter at November 30, 2003 08:02 PMI can't imagine how anyone could have been surprised by this. Both parties have been fully in favor of government since Newt ran the Republicans into the ground in the mid-90s. Some people assumed it was the message rather than the messenger, so smaller government died a quiet death. The only question now is how fast the fed will grow. (OK, and how long it will take to collapse of its own weight).
Posted by: Andrew at December 2, 2003 09:50 AM