FDR understood the political advantages of massive welfare (or the more insidious workfare) and used it to create the powerful Democratic hegemony that lasted until the end of the 70s. Ronald Reagan ushered in a conservative era- although the Democratic Congress fought him tooth and nail on reducing government spending. Obama recognizes the potential of a New New Deal to bring the Democrats back into power for a long time (people will vote Democratic in gratitude for their “job”). The conservative movement needs to remake itself along much more libertarian/classical liberal ideas i.e. advocate dropping dead weight bureaucracies like Department of Education, repealing the Sixteenth Amendment (income taxes), and abolishing the Federal Reserve (a central bank is antithetical to a free market economy). That’s just a sampling. We can only compete with the populist/socialist liberals if we offer a COMPLETELY different political philosophy.
