For as long as I can remember, Republicans have been hailed as the party of small government.  When voting Republican, it has been generally safe to assume that the vote will go to somebody who wants to cut taxes, educe government spending, and ease the burdens of regulation.  In recent years, Democrats have made the argument — successfully, for it is true — that Republicans are not nearly so good at reducing the size of government as they claim to be.  The time has long past come for Republicans to return to this most central of pillars for all of modern conservatism.

The principles of small government are deeply rooted in the American tradition.  Back in the 1700s, America’s founders fought a war against the tyranny and oppression of a powerful yet distant monarch who exerted his influence needlessly and harmfully against the colonies.  In winning that war, the founders secured for themselves and their posterity a network of states under a strong but limited national government.  They recognized that distant leaders were somewhat immunized from the needs of the people and determined to not allow their nation to fall under the rule of yet another distant sovereign.

Today, the very liberties secured by the founders and reserved by them to the states and the people are used as tools for expanding the power of the national government.  The list of national powers, though still few and defined, has been read so expansively as to have become effectively unlimited.  To make matters worse, the people have been largely complacent in the national government’s radical expansion.  Debates over national policy are frequently made over whether or not the policy is good, with very few people bothering to inquire as to whether the national government even has the authority to implement the solutions they seek.  To make matters worse, when politicians do call some policy unconstitutional, it tends to be because they disagree with the policy as a policy matter with very little real concern for what the Constitution actually permits or requires.

America’s modern small government advocates remain in a state of disarray.  The most organized small government group are the Libertarians; a fact which is rather unfortunate for small government conservatives in general.  The trouble with Libertarians is that they undervalue the necessity of government to nearly the same degree as Democrats overvalue the virtue of government authority.  As a single cause movement, Libertarians are ill-prepared to deal with the fundamental issues which give rise to the need for government power in the first place.  Put briefly, Libertarians offer nothing to promote the order and security of American society other than the generalized assertion that the people themselves will figure out some non-governmental way.  Libertarians also fail to meaningfully distinguish between local and national governments.  The result is a group that looks mostly anarchist and not worth serious attention.

While Libertarians may be fairly accused of going too far, their guiding philosophy has all of the rigor and consistency which conservatives would be wise to adopt.  Conservatism as a whole is fully capable of filling the massive void left by the Libertarians in terms of how to go about organizing a society in the relative absence of government.  The remaining First Principles, personal responsibility and limited charity, provide the grounding for a complete picture of society which libertarianism alone lacks.  Conservatives are able to recognize that the local governments, which are most responsive to the people, are able to be entrusted with greater power than the distant and generally isolated national government.  Conservatives can also build the non-governmental organizations necessary to perform those tasks which are necessary for society but not right for government intervention on any level.

The entire journey begins by asking whether any proposed government action is rightfully within the government’s authority.  Politicians must be encouraged to honestly ask this question and to vote against any proposal which exceeds the government’s authority, even if they agree with the proposal as a matter of policy.  Politicians can be much more than simple law makers.  Using the same talents and abilities that give them office in the first place, politicians are well prepared to champions and advocates for causes throughout society.

Tags: First Principles