In a piece dubbed “The Dead End of Liberalism,” Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review argues that some of the past “successes” of liberal policy handicap today’s liberals as they try to insert the government into even more of our daily decisions.

(The quotation marks designate that “success” is not necessarily the best word. While the New Deal, Great Society, and other programs were undoubtedly successful politically, it’s much more difficult to make the case for success based on actual long-term policy outcomes.)

Nevertheless, here’s a particularly interesting observation from Ponnuru:

Contemporary liberalism both presupposes and desires a government that is flexible, competent, energetic. It wants and needs a government that can mobilize society’s resources to accomplish a long list of difficult tasks, including the reduction of economic inequality, the education of children, the protection of the environment, the elimination of unjust discrimination, and the safeguarding of consumers ? just to name a few. Yet in operation, it weighs down the government with interest groups that first make it inefficient and inflexible and then make it impossible to reform.

You might remember that one year ago, Ponnuru discussed the future of conservatism in a presentation to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society. Click play below to hear a highlight from that speech: