Once again the latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books is just chockful of brainy goodness. When it’s online for everyone we should chat a bit about Bill Voegeli’s meditation on conservatism and the limits of big government, in which he tries to puzzle through “Ponnuru’s dilemma.” An excerpt:

If conservatism has a future, those who want to fashion it need to acknowledge and understand this stunning defeat. In National Review last year Ramesh Ponnuru said the “real crisis” is that, while a conservatism whose “central mission” does not emphasize the fight against Big Government is inconceivable, a “political coalition in America capable of sustaining a majority” for that mission is unimaginable. Conservatism, in other words, can have a purpose or it can have a prospect. It cannot, apparently, have both.
This political problem will only become more acute as the challenges of governance become more severe. One yardstick may help conservatives feel a little better about themselves. In 1981 federal spending was 22.2% of GDP; last year it was 20.3%. This measure hovered in a very narrow band for the whole era, never exceeding 23.5% or falling below 18.4%. Adding expenditures by states and localities confirms the picture of a rugby match between liberals and conservatives that is one interminable scrum in the middle of the field. Spending by all levels of government in America amounted to 31.6% of GDP in 1981, and 31.8% in 2006.
Conservatives, though, can’t take much solace from fighting Big Government to a draw. Looking back, the dynamic growth of the American economy after 1982-real per capita GDP was two-thirds higher in 2006 than in 1981-offered a great opportunity to reduce the relative size of the public sector. This economic vigor meant that more people had more money to spend on their own health, education, and welfare, presumably enabling the government to spend less for such purposes. It also meant that government spending could have grown robustly and still expanded more slowly than the economy, leaving the public sector to absorb a significantly smaller portion of GDP in 2006 than it did in 1981. Even this modest achievement eluded conservatives.