The problem, which this election is clearly highlighting, is that there is a growing fissure between statists and small-governmentalists. And it’s found throughout the political spectrum, left and right. It’s becoming increasingly impossible for any candidate to attract both sides in any of the political parties.
On the right, social conservatives are more apt to support an ever more powerful, centralized government... for only that size government is capable of delivering what they want.
After all, how can you eliminate abortion unless you there is one law over all the land proclaiming it illegal... and how can you enforce it without monitoring every woman and doctor at all times, coupled with a large enough police force to arrest them before it happens?
And that costs money. A lot of money. Money that will come from higher taxes.
And on the left, you see this play out between the communists/socialists/fascists/race baiters/unions/environmentalists and the hippy drippy ‘my body is a temple and I can do what I want with it’ crowd.
To be sure, it’s fairly unbalanced between the two parties... with more small-governmentalists in the Republican party than Democrat party, and vice versa in the Democrat party. But there is enough of the opposite in each party to play spoiler. Which is why the Republicans have managed to screw the pooch in 2008... and will probably do it again in 2012.
The problem I have is that many of them want a ever more powerful, centralized FEDERAL government. They have joined the Democrats in believing that the Federal government should be the ultimate regulator of morality, while completely disagreeing with Democrats on what those moral rules should be. (Democrats moral rules examples : federal civil rights for gays, or Roe vs Wade federal right to abortion.)
They act as if the Democrats will never get power and won't use that expansion of federal powers for their own uses. Remember all that Tea party talk about ‘the constitution’ so popular in 2009 and 2010, But it was barely heard when GWB was president('he kept you safe' so forget the constitution ), and I expect it will completely disappear from Republicans if we get another RINO, err Republican POTUS.
How many Republican candidates talk about limiting federal power, limiting the meaning of interstate commerce in constitutional interpretations? Besides Paul, Bachmann did which is why I liked her. (The problem with Paul is he wants the opposite extreme.) The remaining ones that I can tell want a big powerful Republican government. Then there are the candidates 'proposed' constitutional amendments going no-where that drive me up the wall.