The January issue of Commentary features a large cross-section of conservative scribblers–William Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Gerson, David Frum, David Brooks, and so on–answering the question "What is the future of conservatism in the wake of the 2012 election?" The magazine was nice enough to solicit my two cents, which you can read here. The opening and closing paragraphs:
Conservatives have long since taught themselves to handle with tongs any political advice from non-Republican libertarians like me. But amidst the depressing-to-some meteor shower of post-Romney headlines about how the GOP needs to "go more libertarian," I come from Planet Freedom bearing unseasonably happy tidings: You don't need to become a heroin-legalizing, amnesty-embracing, blame-America-firster in order to reassert conservatism's electoral and philosophical relevance during President Barack Obama's second term. No, the only two transformations required are re-learning a grand tradition's intellectual commitment to reducing the size and scope of government and recalibrating electoral tactics and even the basic selling proposition around the notion of playing defense, not offense. […]
More Americans than ever think that government is trying to do too much. All conservatives need to do now is provide those people with a believable place to go.
