Daniel Henninger writes something morose in the Wall Street Journal:
The greatest threat to the upward arc of human progress is the collapse of public policy making. That is the biggest cliff of all.
Governments are giving government a bad name.
Japan's once-thriving economy has been in the dumpster for years. California, said to be the world's sixth-largest economy, is joining Japan in decline. The euro crisis, now in its third year, is less a crisis than a chronic condition of policy failure across Western Europe. As to America's fiscal cliff, no comment.
Aside from the fact there is no such thing as an "upward arc of human progress," I concur with Henninger's point. Conservatives rightly think government should be limited in breadth and depth. They must recognize, however, that basic tasks such as passing budgets and borrowing funds aren't exactly complex philosophic or moral questions.
Henninger's correct that governments are giving government a bad name. The answer to that issue is not to throw our hands in the air and walk away. It's to govern.