Compassionate conservatives strike back against Tea Party

ARTICLE BY PHILIP KLEIN | JANUARY 9, 2014 AT 5:54 PM

When the Tea Party movement emerged to challenge President Obama in 2009, it also posed a counterweight to the “compassionate conservative” wing of the Republican Party, which was defined by the expansionist policies of President George W. Bush.

After years of being marginalized, compassionate conservatives – emboldened by the overreach of Tea Party conservatives during last fall’s government shutdown fight – are attempting to reassert control over the party.

In the winter 2014 issue of National Affairs, Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner - two former speechwriters and advisers to Bush - propose “A Conservative Vision of Government,” in which they advance many of the arguments that were used 15 years ago to sideline small-government conservatives and lay the groundwork for the Bush-era spending binge.

Gerson and Wehner are concerned about the libertarian lurch among Republicans. Not only is this “anti-government” trend unproductive and politically suicidal, they argue, but it contradicts the vision of the nation’s founders, whose principles Tea Party leaders argue they’re out to uphold.

The U.S. Constitution, Gerson and Wehner argue, was not a “purely limiting document,” but a framework for allowing government to take positive actions.

Though it’s true that the Constitution gave power to a federal government that did not exist previously, this amounts to attacking a straw man, as limited government conservatives are not arguing for a return to the Articles of Confederation. They just wish Congress would act within the powers granted to it by the states through the Constitution, and check back with the states if federal lawmakers want to claim more powers through amendment.

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Keywords: Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Tea Party, Libertarian, Compassionate, Conservatives, George Bush, Obama, John McCain, Iraq, War, Neocon, Lindsey Graham, Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, Articles of Confederation, Founding Fathers, Federal, Government, Shutdown, Congress, Michael Gerson, Peter Wehner, A Conservative Vision of Government, Republican Party, Foreign Interventionism, Ron Paul, Eric Cantor, Sarah Palin, Ken Cuccinelli