Given all of the coverage on Karl Rove and his legacy, I thought I would reference these two pieces from the Economist, one is an examination of whether America is turning left and the other is on whether the rise of the right is now stunted.  The intriguing question becomes whether Karl Rove and his desire to build a McKinleyesque permanent Republican majority by embracing “Big-Government Conservatism” is the prime culprit in the doldrums, the GOP now faces. 

It is certainly a compelling argument that a combination of arrogance, incompetence, and perceptions of cronyism are driving the Republican brand into a virtual inferno beyond the middle of the earth.  Iraq has, in my opinion very much unfairly, damaged the brand.  Iraq was a grand effort and may still become more successful than currently imagined as possible.  However, post war mismanagement has taken this act and turned it into the poster child of a hubristic, inhumane, and incompetent exercise in futility by a media that naturally is incapable of understanding the potential of a moral use of force.  Subsequently, it has become a wedge issue of its own and is hung around Republican necks like a stone. 

Clearly, however, Iraq is not the only culprit.  Corruption scandals and a betrayal of traditional conservative, limited government positions have exacerbated the tensions raised by the struggling war effort.  While I firmly believe the GOP has made many mistakes that have helped to push us into this seemingly gaping chasm, it is not conservatism per se that should be abandoned by this nation.  I have a true fear that creeping socialism is on the verge of roaring into power and leading us well down the “Road to Serfdom.”

Universal healthcare is now practically viewed as a Constitutional right and that it is fundamentally evil if everyone doesn’t have coverage.  An increasing number of people are looking wistfully at diplomacy and imagine that the right soothing words can tame the wolves before they ravage the farm.  People are now viewing the greatest expansion of wealth in human history as the corruption of an order where everything must be equalized to be deemed “fair.”  People are becoming more “tolerant”, to the point where any moral outrage is considered an act of blind zealotry. 

I don’t disagree that dealing with healthcare is a hugely important issue.  I don’t disagree that more effective diplomacy can pay dividends and have argued just that in a previous posting.  I have strenuously argued that Republicans need to be proactive in defending globalization and developing some programs to help the dislocated.  I believe embracing people with differing perspectives and lifestyles can be good for everyone.  All that said, my fear is that we may be at a hinge point in history where we don’t make the kind of truly necessary adjustments, but rather, jump head long towards the path of irredeemable paternalism, moral equivocation, and naïve utopian abstraction.   

Maybe more than some conservatives I am willing to see government as a potential partner at times and not always as an unambiguous villain.  Yet that is a far cry from viewing government as an unambiguous hero that will enforce equality no matter what.  My fear is that in a moment of pique and frustration, America could be shifting towards the unambiguous hero view.  Should this happen and we find ourselves on the doorstep of a new New Deal, I think the future may well be bleak because a utopia it will not beget.