Principles vs. Platform
I remember there was once a set of guiding principles behind conservatism. The government should be small, efficient, and smart. Sweeping social changes should be implemented cautiously. The smallest decision-making unit tends to have the most relevant information and, when in doubt, should be trusted to make the best choices. Eventually these principles came together into an easily articulable policy platform.
In the McCain age, the platform is still there, dogmatically reaffirmed, but the principles are missing. Tax cuts were not part of the principle—they were a specific policy prescription for a specific set of problems. The campaign has a hodgepodge of policy proposals with virtually no intellectual clout to back them up.
This is why McCain is in serious trouble come November (and why our country will lack meaningful direction come February if McCain is elected). The liberals had a similar problem with Kerry and, to a lesser extent, Gore—because the most recent clear articulation of the important liberal principles was probably in the sixties. Fortunately for the Democrats, Obama has revitalized the old liberal principles, in part by borrowing a few insights from conservatism. When McCain accuses Obama of buying into old, failed ideas, it’s pretty clear he hasn’t been paying much attention to Obama’s ideas. Obama clearly understands the power behind some of the old ideas—but he approaches most of his policies from a very practical stand point. His advisors are experts in their respective fields—and he listens to them. He is focussed not only on the policy, but also on the result—and the way he has run his entire campaign shows a keen understanding of the power of individual choices, individual actions, and individual solutions. He has kept the inclusiveness of the liberals but shed the paternalism that so creeps out the conservatives.
