July 3, 2010

Repeal the 20th Century?

By J. Robert Smith
Repeal the 20th Century? Or at least repeal the welfare state?  In a long exposition on the direction of the tea parties, Weekly Standard contributor Matthew Continetti writes that more than a few tea partiers want to do something most Americans oppose: namely, repeal the 20th century -- or repeal the massive welfare state that grew up in it.  Continetti's take on Americans' sentiments may be right, but he misses an overriding critical point. Events may prove to be larger than any sentiments or attachments. What Americans want and what they get in the next years could well stand in stark opposition. Why? Because that clunky, early-industrial-model welfare state that Americans don't want repealed may fail right before their eyes. In fact, big government-liberalism -- that peculiarly 20th-century invention -- may finally be playing itself out. Where is it etched in stone that big government has been granted a license in perpetuity? Or, for that matter, that the ideology and...(Read Full Article)