A couple of weeks ago I wrote a semi-incoherent rant post about some of the things I fell the Republican Party needs to do to to make it a genuinely viable alternative to the Democrat Party. As usual, someone has come along and made a much more concise case for what needs to be done. While I ended up on a digression about the FairTax (and I still think we need it), Perry DeHavilland at Samizdata kept the focus where I should have:
"I am not calling for the 'libertarianisation' of the Republican party along the lines I would actually like, just for the party's rationalisation. I am in essence calling for a nominally conservative party to become... conservative. The simple fact is that people can be fellow travellers on a path that leads to liberty without all marching in ideological lock-step. It just boils down to asking the question "do you want the state to have less control over people's lives or more control?" [my emphasis] If a person can honestly answer that they think the state is too powerful and needs to be reduced, that is a fellow traveller.
This is the time to apply that test to Republican politicians, every last one of them... and drive any who fail that simple test out of the party by whatever means necessary...."
Reducing the role of government in the people's daily lives and minimising the opportunities for political interference in free markets is the goal we should be striving for.
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