In Praise of Conservatism, In Hopes for Its Future, and Why the Wisconsin Union-Busting Law is Wrong Anyway (2011)
Originally published as a Facebook Note March 13, 2011. Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin (2011-2019) (In which our author, having spilled an obscene amount of words on other people's sites, decides to mess up his own page instead.) I grew up in the 1960s, in a conservative house in a conservative town in a liberal era. When I was growing up, conservatism stood for small, efficient, clean, government, and a cautious approach to social change. Even so, there was room in the conservative idea for public goods. The civil rights, environmental, consumer protection and campaign finance legislation that passed during the late 1960s and early 1970s passed with conservative input and support. In serving as a counterweight to the era's liberal zeitgeist, conservatism was at its best, and made distinctive contributions to American political and social life. It reflected skepticism about government activity and spending, reminding us constantly that we couldn't regulate or spend e...