It appears that Bill Kristol has recently joined the intellectual brotherhood of David Frum, David Brooks et. al, whose members champion the wonders of Big Government Republicanism. Evidently, Mr. Kristol and other diamonds of brilliance have been asleep for the past eight years. Big Government ideology is precisely what has destroyed the Republican brand, and Republicans need to retreat from it if they ever want to succeed in the future.

To demonstrate this truth, one only needs to look at our present administration: George W. Bush is the poster child for Big Government Republicanism. He expanded the national debt, created No Child Left behind, created Medicare Part-D, spent more on education and foreign aid than any President in History and failed to veto a single spending bill during his first term in office. Not exactly the Ludwig von Mises of our time.

In 2006, Republicans were voted out of office for the precise reason that nobody believed Republican slogans supporting limited government anymore. Republicans cut taxes and raised spending while Democrats raised taxes and raised spending. "Big Government Light" is not a winning ticket when people can vote for the real Big Government Party.

In fact, Big Government Republicans seem to be in denial that we nominated their favorite son, John McCain, this past year. Did they also fail to notice that McCain rarely used the words "freedom" or "liberty" in almost a year of campaigning? We literally were voting between someone who wanted Big Government and someone who wanted really, really Big Government.

McCain, for example, championed public service and trashed anything that appeared to be in support of individualism, and god-forbid the private sector. Moreover, John McCain never pretended to promise a smaller government, instead he proposed his own entitlement programs to match Barack Obama's. That worked out well, didn't it?

Read all of Mr. Krisol's editorials here. You'll notice that he doesn't express his dislike of limited government, just that he believes it has not won too many elections.

I thought we were a Party of Principles?

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