I sometimes get the feeling Mike Gerson thinks that conservatism is fundamentally flawed. The latest example:
For all of conservatism’s evident virtues, it can have one furtive, seedy vice: A justified suspicion of government can degenerate into an anti-government ideology — rigid, stingy and indifferent to human suffering.
This time it’s about concerns about PEPFAR — legitimate ones worth debate and attention. The contention that Tom Coburn is rigid, stingy and indifferent to suffering strikes me as very wrong; the senator defends himself here.
I’m not voting for an anti-government ideology. I am voting for conservatives to not fear their big-government skepticism. Nothing wrong with that.