In a world of competitive capitalism, you need not big government or no government but smart government. We are not in a race to the bottom, on wages, regulations, or anything else. But we are competing against other countries to come up with the government policies that most effectively foster growth, innovation, and productivity. It’s a time to figure out what works, not what ideological mantras to keep repeating. It’s the age of Michael Bloomberg, not Margaret Thatcher.
Of course, without Margaret Thatcher (or her equivalent, Rudy Giuliani), there would be no Bloomberg. The "small c" conservative point here, it seems to me, is that policy should reflect changing times. People forget that Reagan’s attack on government was premised on a particular time and place: America 1980. Ditto Thatcher in Britain 1979.
I think most Obama supporters in America would have been horrified at the extent of state power and trade union abuse in Britain in the 1970s. But today, there are different challenges that require different solutions. I’m a free market conservative, but I cannot defend the speculation and recklessness of the financial markets in the past decade. I’m a fiscal conservative, but I cannot defend the GOP in the 21st century. I’m for low taxes, but realistically there’s no way to get back to fiscal sanity without someone paying higher taxes at some point.
Being for Bloomberg now, in other words, does not imply rejecting Thatcher yesterday. The problem with conservatism today is that it has become an ideology or even a theology, immune to the changing times. That’s why it will collapse, and should collapse. And why a new conservatism is waiting to be born.
The Dish 