In the latest dead-tree version of National Review, Jonah Goldberg uses an article about the “No Labels” movement to discuss the inadequacy of the labels “conservative” and “liberal.”
Conservatives champion the decidedly un-conserving forces of the free market and individualism. Liberals champion, well, if you’re reading this magazine you know what they champion.
I don’t worry overmuch about what the consultants call “branding” in politics. But it would be awfully nice if conservatives did a better job explaining to voters, particularly younger voters, that the party of change and freedom is in many respects the GOP (though perhaps not in the realm of “lifestyle”). Liberalism remains enthralled by the New Deal model that seeks to impose stability, security, and predictability on economic life at the expense of growth and innovation. That is a fundamentally small-“c”-conservative worldview. Liberals rationalize it by saying that necessitous men are not free men. What they miss is that men do not become free by becoming dependent on government for all of life’s necessities.
Goldberg’s reference to younger voters reminds me of comments Michael Barone made to a John Locke Foundation Headliner audience in 2009. Barone offered the GOP some marketing suggestions:
