I have to go to CNN. So I won’t be around for a while. But here’s a nugget from my syndicated column:

The second explanation has to do with the changing nature of conservative dogma. Or, to be more accurate, the faltering adherence to conservative dogma. For fifty years, it was an article of faith that growth of government was synonymous with loss of liberty. Many conservatives believed that government meddling in the free market put us all on what Friedrich Hayek famously called “The Road to Serfdom,” his literary way of saying the slippery slope to communism or fascism.
But welfare reform, the collapse of communism and the relative popularity of middle-class entitlements like Social Security and home mortgage interest deductions have caused that dogma to lose much of its oomph. A movement that believes writing checks to old folks is a step toward tyranny is more likely to fight government spending than one that thinks it’s merely bad bookkeeping.
When you look at it from this perspective, it’s fair to say this administration is conservative. But it’s also fair to say it favors big government. What will make politics very interesting in the years to come is that “big government conservative” used to be an oxymoron. now it means “compassionate conservative.”