Weary of watching the Twins’ futility in the home of those damn Yankees last week, I looked for a winner on my bookshelf. I seized upon the optimistically titled ‘The End of Liberalism.’ Although its predictive value is somewhat depreciated by its 1969 copyright, the classic text by political scientist Theodore Lowi is as insightful today as in the heyday of ‘The Great Society.’

Lowi coined the term “interest-group liberalism” to describe policy-making through deference to organized lobbies. Interest-group liberalism rests on two fundamental beliefs: Government is a positive force and a champion of good, and virtually all interest-group demands are legitimate. Consequently, a primary function of government becomes balancing and advancing any and all organized petitions.

The “end of liberalism” comes about when the appeasement process evolves the perfect storm of unrestrained bureaucratic growth, an unmanageable web of conflicting regulations and an unsustainable skyrocketing budget. Are we there yet, at the end?

Not by a long shot, and the reason is simple: Interest-group liberalism is the prevailing political philosophy of the American public, of Democrats and of Republicans — all the post-election Republican talk of a return to “conservative values” and “conservative principles” notwithstanding.

Slate writer Jacob Weisberg picked up on Lowi’s theme in a 2005 piece analyzing the governing philosophy of then President George Bush. When Democrats were in power, Weisberg noted, they were beholden to unions, lobbies for women’s rights, civil rights and gay rights, senior citizens lobbies, welfare advocates, Hollywood and trial lawyers. The hallmark of Democratic governing was a focus on policies that meant more to those groups than mattered to the welfare of the country at large.

When Republicans assumed power in 2000, the implied promise was the end of liberalism. Instead, Bush-era Republicans practiced their own brand of interest-group liberalism. Out with the old and in with military contractors, evangelical Christians, wealthy investors, gun owners and an alternative conservative media — new regime, new supplicants, but the same process.

Like the repentant weight-watcher who will do whatever it takes to slim down except diet and exercise, after getting hammered in the past two election cycles Republicans seem willing to do whatever it takes to restore conservative “values” — except adhere to conservative “principles.” Consider the touting by Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen of a legislative amendment he authored.

“Our military veterans who own businesses face unique challenges, and government must ensure the policies in place to assist them are achieving their goals,” Paulsen said in a press release. The “Job Creation through Entrepreneurship Act,” to which Paulsen’s amendment ensuring benefits for veterans was attached, also includes specific largess for women, Native Americans and a new grant program for Small Business Development Centers. It passed the House 406-15.

Paulsen and Republican Rep. John Kline voting for a bill that champions small business and veterans is certainly in keeping with “conservative values” (GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann did not vote). But using public funds to create private benefits for multiple interest groups by expanding the federal bureaucracy and deficit spending most certainly violates the conservative principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility (not to mention constitutional fidelity).

Such interest-group liberalism turns logrolling (legislators trading votes) from “a necessary evil into a virtue.” So at a state level, when southern Minnesota legislators earmark state funds for an international volleyball center in Rochester, there is nary a peep from their Arrowhead compatriots who expect reciprocal support in anticipation of a photo-op at a Duluth arena expansion. Both outstate areas support a budget-draining light-rail system between Minneapolis and St. Paul. A combined financial obligation on all Minnesotans, these projects respectively mean more to Rochester, Duluth and the Twin Cities than they matter to the welfare of the state at large.

The irony is that by practicing interest-group liberalism, both Democrats and Republicans are conservatively protecting an unsustainable status quo. Chances of actual reform — say, replacing the inefficient corporate income tax with a more efficient broad-based, low-rate sales tax — is problematic, not because of any flaw in economic logic, but because Democrats and Republicans both have supporters threatened by the reform. Their here-and-now concerns matter more, politically, than the future economic welfare of the state.

While many are outraged at government largess to interest groups other than their own, few are eager to gore their own oxen for the sake of principle. Nonetheless, unless we the people demand reform, it’s more likely the Twins will sweep a series in Yankee Stadium than we will ever achieve an “end of liberalism.”

This commentary originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press Thursday, May 28, 2009.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Commentaries, Craig Westover, Limited Government, Tax Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.