Republicans Must Be Responsive and Also Responsible

From Peter Wehner at Politics Daily:

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree. The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, but nearly 7 in 10 Republicans, say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

A  healthy, well-functioning society is one in which the government commands the loyalty and trust of its citizens. If that bond is broken, something terribly important has been lost. It is difficult, and it may be very nearly impossible, to sustain a deep love of country if its citizens have nothing but contempt for its government. But contempt is what we often have.

This is where a responsive, and responsible, Republican Party comes in. It can continue to be responsive to the real concerns of the public. And it can be responsible by taking the public's scorn for government and channeling it in a constructive manner, in a way that translates into an actual governing and reform agenda. It is not enough to simply pour kerosene onto the bonfire. Republicans need public figures (like Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Rep. Paul Ryan) who can articulate an alternative view of government in a way that isn't simplistic, that isn't angry, or that doesn't appeal (as I worry Sarah Palin sometimes does) to cultural resentments.

Once again, those arguing for limited government are in the best position to restore trust in government (Reagan achieved this in the aftermath of Carter). Government is the "offspring of our own choice," President Washington said in his Farewell Address -- one that "has a just claim to [our] confidence and [our] support." One of the arguments Republicans need to forcefully advance in the Age of Obama is that government has a vital but limited role to play; that its laws and institutions matter; that its de-legitimization is dangerous; and that the modern GOP has a specific, credible plan to restore a healthy respect for the state and its institutions.

This would be a deeply conservative undertaking -- and an ennobling one as well.