Where's The Party, Man?

Francis Cianfrocca is discussing Class Warfare In America. At the end of his piece he mentions a businessman's lament.

...I had a conversation yesterday with an old friend who runs a high-ten-figure hedge fund. (They're flat for the year, like the rest of the hedge-fund world.) What he wants is to join a political party that believes in not taking people's money and in not telling them what to do: small govt without the bibles. This is something I hear from business guys all the time: the whole "social liberal/fiscal conservative" thing. So far, there's no political movement they can believe in.

In fact the lack of such a party is why we are in so much trouble. When the Bible thumping gets too loud the fiscal conservatives stop paying attention to the money and go all in on correcting the social flaws in America at the point of a government gun. The swing voters get disgusted. They listen to the promises lies from the Democrats. And when the Ds get in they run wild. The thumpers then start in with the "what happened to the money - you crooks?" Then the conservatives get fiscal for a while and the cycle starts again. In the mean time the socially liberal/fiscally conservative segment of the population is continually whipsawed.

Which leads to the question: do conservatives really want small government or do they want power over people who are in their opinion self-destructive?

If conservatives want small government (for real) I think broadening the coalition might prove helpful. We are going to need all the deviants and dopers we can enlist (and more) to restrict the leviathan and keep it restricted. That means that even if conservatives get power it might not be wise for them to start in on the margins of their coalition. Because you know what happens when you run out of margin. Here is how Bill Whittle describes loss of margin: "Out of altitude, out of airspeed, out of ideas. Eject! Eject! Eject!" The question is: are conservatives tired of getting ejected? Are they smart enough to figure out what to do? My answer is - most likely YES on the first and NO on the second.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values