Conservatives tend to be resentful of big

Liberals have always derived great delight from exposing real and imagined inconsistencies in conservative habits of mind, of which one of their favorites is the conservative’s instinctive fear of big government—a fear suspended when that government is creating a huge and powerful military establishment. Criticizing this particular inconsistency, however, is an ill-conceived occupation for the simple reason that the United States, for good or ill, has been forced into the role of Western civilization’s military custodian. That role mandates a powerful America, but it’s a role for which the United States is tragically ill-suited, as is demonstrated by the failure of so many liberals to understand why, in this world created by American liberalism, a powerful defense establishment makes sense, even to conservatives.

But in another area—those recent revelations of illegal and improper activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation—the liberal response poses a nice lesson for conservatives; namely, that when it comes to governmental institutions, selective skepticism is inadequate skepticism. Conservatives, let’s face it, simply didn’t respond to the early hints of FBI wrongdoing with anything approaching the outrage they can muster when it’s the National Science Foundation meddling in gradeschool curriculum development or the Office of Economic Opportunity dispensing cash to young neighborhood thugs.

RM

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Robert W. Merry

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Liberals have always derived great delight from exposing real and imagined inconsistencies in conservative habits of mind, of which one of their favorites is the conservative’s instinctive fear of big government—a fear suspended when that government is creating a huge and powerful military establishment. Criticizing this particular inconsistency, however, is an ill-conceived occupation for the simple reason that the United States, for good or ill, has been forced into the role of Western civilization’s military custodian. That role mandates a powerful America, but it’s a role for which the United States is tragically ill-suited, as is demonstrated by the failure of so many liberals to understand why, in this world created by American liberalism, a powerful defense establishment makes sense, even to conservatives.

But in another area—those recent revelations of illegal and improper activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation—the liberal response poses a nice lesson for conservatives; namely, that when it comes to governmental institutions, selective skepticism is inadequate skepticism. Conservatives, let’s face it, simply didn’t respond to the early hints of FBI wrongdoing with anything approaching the outrage they can muster when it’s the National Science Foundation meddling in gradeschool curriculum development or the Office of Economic Opportunity dispensing cash to young neighborhood thugs.