The hand of government, by contrast, is nothing if not visible. Its actions are advertised by every politician. Advocating a hands-off policy seems a hard-hearted excuse to do nothing about grievous social problems. That government usually creates further problems while failing to solve the first one matters less than that it tries.
Then there is the modern secular theology of compassion, which trades in Mother Teresa's philosophy for Ted Kennedy's. While the old Catholic nun labors in the slums of Calcutta, the U.S. senator ministers to the poor from the marbled Senate offices of the Russell Building without ever getting his hands dirty.
Senatorial compassion conveys a sense of spiritual well-being not only to those who exercise it, but to those who support it. Government good works offer more than the ostensible aid they lend to the needy; they also allow people to feel good about themselves by voting for the politician who donates tax money to good causes. Like market successes, however, the policy failures that result are often hidden within the larger milieu.
Still, despite such powerful forces, the outlook is hardly all bleak for the GOP agenda. The House's success with the Contract with America--a sweeping package of tax cuts, welfare reform, tort reform, regulatory reform, and congressional reform--was without legislative precedent in modern times. Nine out of the 10 items passed, defying earlier predictions among even its supporters.
Democrats were routed so thoroughly that 58 percent of them crossed party lines to vote for the very thing they had said they despised.
The shift in the political discourse and terms of debate has been extraordinary. Democrats seem in shock. At a welfare hearing, Democratic Representative Charles Rangel of New York was amazed that GOP witness Lawrence Mead of Princeton University urged recipients to find immediate work, even at the minimum wage.
"If you're a high school dropout, you don't just pick up The New York Times and find out what jobs are out there," Rangel remonstrated. "What should [that person] do, just hit the streets?"
"Yes, exactly," Mead responded.
An energetic and unapologetic conservatism has taken over the House, not only opening debate on matters long bottled up by the old leadership, but demonstrating their extraordinary popularity, even among Democrats.
The change could hardly be more profound. Rather than Chicago Democrat Dan Rostenkowski presiding over his Ways and Means Committee fiefdom, there sits Texas conservative Bill Archer, who not only vows to "pull the income tax up by its roots," but has people believing him.
The ideological division has crystallized and sharpened. The debates reflect real struggles over very different visions. "I have a simple message for the Democrats," Archer declared as he opened the tax-cut debate. "It is not your money. It is the taxpayers' money. It does not belong to the government. It belongs to the workers who earned it."
The '60s-style protests against the changes have generated scant interest. Few even noticed when Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization of Women, got herself arrested in the Capitol Rotunda during debate on the Republican welfare bill.
Demonstrators bused in by the union-backed Philadelphia Unemployment Project tried to disrupt a welfare hearing but seemed more successful at undermining their supporters. "I do job training," shouted protester Leona Smith. "I teach job training. And there ain't no jobs." They were escorted outside, where they continued their protest on the steps mainly to reporters.
Democrats remain in a highly reactive mode. They protest every cut and defend every program, but suggest no alternative.
They offer only more job training programs that a large body of serious studies shows don't work. They reach for transparent hyperbole, comparing proposals to slow the growth of welfare spending to the Nazi Holocaust. Reductions, they said, will "savage" babies, kids, widows, pregnant women, and the elderly. Are puppies next, one has to wonder? The proposals they do offer often are variations on GOP themes, such as their insistence on workfare.
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