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WASHINGTON -- A specter is haunting the Republican Party -- though thankfully it is no longer the recently defeated Arlen Specter, who managed to be equally troublesome as both ally and foe. It is the specter of ideological overreach.
Some will immediately protest that President Obama and congressional leaders are the ones who are guilty of overreach. Which is also true. Tuesday was the latest in a series of elections that have punished not just incumbents but incumbents associated with the expansion of government. Even Democrat Mark Critz, the winner of this week's House special election in Pennsylvania, campaigned in opposition...
The Pauline Overreach
Mr. Gerson says that "libertarians are not merely advocates of limited government; they are anti-government." But saying so doesn't make it true.
Restricting government to its enumerated powers is the American invention. It was formulated because the Founders knew their history; they knew that the natural tendency of any central government is its own aggrandisement. That tendency, which comes with all the rationales and sophistries men can imagine, must be constrained.
All of Mr Gerson's reasons for wanting bigger government are excuses, the crafted words of a court intellectual seeking his own rent.
Look up the principle of subsidiarity, sir. It works in your Church and it will...