American Enterprise institute: Is Freedom's Price Too High for the Right?

[unhappycamper]

Is Freedom's Price Too High for the Right?
By Danielle Pletka, Thomas Donnelly | Washington Post
Friday, September 24, 2010

Since World War II, a touchstone of American conservatism has been the defense of freedom. The freedoms of others were regarded as essential to secure and enjoy our own. In 2010, however, the conservative movement--and the party that seeks to represent it--is at a crossroads. One path continues in this direction; the other leads backward, seeking to defend freedom only at home. The choice conservatives make will go a long way toward defining America and the world, still more toward defining the future of the right.

The road backward beckons in an almost Calvinistic call to fiscal discipline; austerity is its virtue even before national security in a time of war. Libertarians and Tea Party darlings such as Ron and Rand Paul and conservative stalwarts such as Tom Coburn have long inhabited this political territory. Members of the GOP vanguard such as Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and, possibly, insurgent Tea Party candidates are joining them.

Thin threads bind these cloth-coat Republicans. Some simply wish to spend less; if that means under-resourcing the war in Afghanistan, so be it. To them, the Defense Department is another case of wasteful government and bureaucratic collusion that has, in Coburn's words, "allowed the military-industrial complex to make things unaffordable." For others, doctrinaire fiscal conservatism blends easily with a renewed isolationism. As one GOP up-and-comer told us recently, "America has borne the burden of making the world secure for 60 years; it's someone else's turn."

The road forward embraces small government and a renewal of private enterprise but sees an equally exceptional American enterprise abroad. This has been the mainstream position of conservatives and Republicans since 1945, expressed in Sen. Arthur Vandenberg's rejection of "isolationism" and embrace of "internationalism."

Yet Washington's chattering classes have tried to imagine a battle between the heirs of Eisenhower and Reagan. In this myth, Ike was a war-hardened vet who had the "political will and willingness . . . to make hard choices," as Defense Secretary Robert Gates intoned recently. Reagan, in this telling, was a profligate "supply-side" quack who gave his defense secretary America's credit card.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. With that logic, our military is protecting something that may not exist.

Like writing checks against non-existent gold at Fort Knox.