from Mona Charen at National Review – Reaganism is Dead

“This is the end of Reaganism,” former Senator Tom Coburn, a conservative hero, told me. The three-legged stool of strong defense, small government, and conservatism on social issues has been smashed. Republicans, or at least a plurality of Republican primary voters, no longer distrust government per se, they simply distrust this government. They dislike Obama and the Republican leadership. But they’re ready to believe that an outsider will be able to bring his annealing touch to the economy, to the culture, and to national greatness. If a Republican politician today were to tell the joke about “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” — a reliable punch line in the Reagan repertoire — he or she would be greeted by incomprehension. This is a signal victory for the Left: The triumph of faith in the state. Trumpites are reprising Obama’s “Yes We Can” with a new lead.

Republican politicians cannot rely on the healthy skepticism about government that was once woven into the fabric of the party. People used to know that bigger government enables more corruption, that the mediating institutions of society such as family, church, and community organizations are better at nearly every task than bureaucracies, and that government undermines these institutions when it expands too much.

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