See it here.

Pretty funny except the mocking John McCain’s war service part.

Two recent pieces have brought the “big government” modifier to its most unlikely of nouns, libertarian. Tyler Cowen (at CATO of all places) and David Brooks (at the good ole NYT) are making the case that we’re entering a period for big government. Their argument is basically as follows.

Supposition 1: America in the middle twentieth century faced its greatest threat from internal forces (government, economic centralization, etc)
Supposition 2: The American people inherently understood this threat was driven by big government and centralization
Conclusion 1: Therefore Reagan’s anti-big government mantra resonated

Supposition 1: America in the twenty-first century faces its greatest threats from external forces (globalization, climate change, terrorism)
Supposition 2: The American people inherently understand this threat comes from a lack of government intervention to protect them.
Conclusion 2: Therefore George Bush’s big government conservatism is the natural political metamorphosis of Reaganism
—–

This is not total bunk, but close. First of all, this situation is no historical anomaly. We faced the same dilemma as today back in the 30’s, except this time we know that the free market not price freezes will help out. Unfortunately, there are many Americans who still believe that the white knight of central planning can save them. (e.g. Katrina, anyone?)

We, as good conservatives, do often fall to the vice of idolizing the past, and as the old National Review saying goes “Reagan was no Reagan.” However, this doesn’t mean our analysis is entirely wrong. Ask you average American about the Post Office or DMV and watch their eyes roll. The problem is that no one has taken the time to explain it like Reagan did. We haven’t had a spokesman for our cause (who was actually able to communicate) since Newt Gingrich, which has basically meant a decade adrift. What we so desperately need this cycle is a spokesman for our cause, which is why I lean towards Fred Thompson (or if not him a Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney [don't stone me alex ]). We need someone who can go on TV and EXPLAIN not just that they are fighting the growth of government but WHY.

For an exercise, the next time you get in an argument about socialized medicine ask the pro-socialization person if they’d rather buy their healthcare like it was a supermarket (low cost, high quality, many choices) or the DMV (but this time if they screw something up you could die).