Damn! I wish I had remebered this earlier! This from the pen of John Boehner three years
ago:
Even though we share many ideological similarities,
Republicans are not libertarians. Libertarians are generally more
hostile to government involvement of any kind on any level;
Republicans share this antipathy to the extent that wherever and
whenever possible, power (wrongly usurped in the first place by
Democratic leaders) should be devolved from the federal government
to the hands of states and localities.
But Republicans also are far from being purely conservative. A
conservative would like to see the government shrink; a Republican
does too, but -- in acknowledging political realities (a new
defensive posture after September 11th for one) and the multitude
of stakeholders in government after years of liberal control -- has
often had to settle for simply slowing its rate of growth.
Republicans have accepted such realities as the burdens of majority
governance.
If I ever see Boehner, I plan on bringing this up and asking if
the GOP ever even succeeded in "slowing its rate of growth."
topics:
John Boehner
