Limited Government

Al Gore's MLK day speech is turning a lot of heads and getting a lot of commentary on both sides of the aisle. The right is correctly noting that Gore never acted on any of this when he was in power.

The left is blaming this on those authoritarian right-wingers.

America needs a conservative of conviction and integrity to issue a call to defend the constitution. We have a lot of conservatives with conviction and a few who have integrity, but none, so far, who have been willing to rise to the defense of the constitution.

In my view, nothing demonstrates the bankruptcy of conservative thought in America more than it's willingness to achieve its goals by sacrificing the constitutional "checks and balances" that undergird our system of law.

They have a big point about the lack of conviction, integrity, and respect for the constitution from the American right. This doesn't mean they have any of those values, but in a way they aren't supposed to. Progressivism has never been about respecting the past. Conservatism is about conserving things, like values and essential limitations on government. This is what conservatives are supposed to be doing. It is a shame that the libertarians are the only real party calling for limited government.

The real problems is the position of limited government in politics. The left only wants limited government for the right. They want unlimited government for their own causes. But that is what the right wants too. We want conservative rights to advance our causes. Instead we really need is a whole lot of neither and to get the government out of the rights and entitlements business. I think that the conservatives are in a superior position to pursue this agenda, but we aren't and that is to our shame.