Friday, November 9, 2007
Republican thoughts
Posted by Harold Henderson on Fri, Nov 9, 2007 at 6:31 AM
Food for thought from former Bush adviser Michael Gerson in the Washington Post:
"The two intellectually vital movements within the Republican Party today are libertarianism and Roman Catholic social thought ...
"Various forms of libertarianism and anti-government conservatism share a belief that justice is defined by the imposition of impartial rules -- free markets and the rule of law. If everyone is treated fairly and equally, the state has done its job. But Catholic social thought takes a large step beyond that view. While it affirms the principle of limited government -- asserting the existence of a world of families, congregations and community institutions where government should rarely tread -- it also asserts that the justice of society is measured by its treatment of the helpless and poor. And this creates a positive obligation to order society in a way that protects and benefits the powerless and suffering. This obligation has never, in Jewish and Christian teaching, been purely private."
Ramesh Ponnuru offers some qualifications here, but doesn't challenge Gerson's basic point.
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Gerson sounds reasonable till he jumps the "what about the children" shark. "What does a narrow, anti-government conservatism have to offer to urban neighborhoods where violence is common and intact families are rare?" How about law and order, school choice, and an elimination of incentives to split up families? "What hope does it provide to children in foreign lands dying of diseases that can be treated or prevented for the cost of American small change? No hope." How about Free Trade, Open Markets and respect for the property rights of the poor? The government can form a framework where people can use their own good judgment to make rational choices about their well-being, then staying out of the way of charity in fixing social issues. JBP
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