It has been clear for a while that the liberal-tarian alliance
isn’t going anywhere fast even though
fantasies that some day, one day, it’ll be fully consummated
simply won’t die down. But now Frank Luntz, the conservative
pollster, has a
piece in the Washington Post that suggests that the
conserva-tarian alliance might be on its way to an annulment too.
Luntz lists five myths about conservative voters, the top one being
that they no longer – if they ever did — give a bird’s do-do about
small government. He notes:

They may have rallied around President Ronald Reagan’s call for
smaller government three decades ago — but it’s not the 1980s
anymore. Today, conservatives don’t want a reduced government so
much as one that works better and wastes less.

In a poll we completed among self-identified conservatives just
before the 2010 elections, “efficient” and “effective” government
clearly beat “less” and “smaller” government. For conservatives,
this debate is less about size than about results, along with a
demand that elected officials demonstrate accountability and
respect for the taxpayer, regardless of whether they’re spending $1
million or $1 trillion. They are rallying behind
the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) not simply
because it cuts the size of government, but because it cultivates
accountability.

It used to be that conservatives supported smaller government on
theoretical grounds: The bigger the government, the smaller the
citizen; government should only do for people what they truly
cannot do for themselves; government isn’t the solution, it is the
problem. You’ve heard such comments from conservatives, and they’re
the mantra of the tea party movement. They’re still part of
conservative orthodoxy — which is why Republican candidates invoke
them — but the underlying conservative belief system is
shifting.

In keeping with this sentiment, conservative voters don’t want
Big Government entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security
dismantled. Writers Luntz:

Take Florida, a key swing state full of conservative seniors.
According to
an AARP poll there last year, 70 percent of them oppose cuts to
Medicare. They want the program strengthened, not dismantled. They
know Medicare needs reform, but they want changes to be effective
and reasonable.

But if a decade of ruinous wars, kleptocratic bailouts, and
profligate and useless economic stimulus packages by Big Government
won’t shake conservative faith in Big Government, then
what will?

Maybe libertarians are just falling down on the job and can’t
find a way to effectively communicate the failures of Big
Government. Or Americans have just become too fond of their EITC
and Social Security checks to be seriously moved by cute Remy
videos. In short, a la Greece, there are too many of us on the
government dole and too few left to question it.

If there is a silver lining to Luntz’ findings, it is that even
though conservatives don’t distrust Big Government, they still
trust themselves more. Hence, when it comes to Medicare – the
greatest entitlement program on the planet, they want
patient-centric solutions to extend its solvency. He notes:

Conservatives believe in such simple principles as personal
choice and greater competition, and they are more confident than
liberals in people’s ability to make the right decisions. For
example, 78 percent agree with the statement: “Increasing patient
choice in Medicare will help save Medicare from bankruptcy. When
patients can shop for better care . . . it will force insurance
companies to compete against each other, which lowers costs and
increases care.

This is consistent with the finding of the recent
Reason-Rupe poll that Americans want more control over their
own health care dollars with 65% of them saying that Medicare
should hand them the money that it currently spends on their behalf
so that they can purchase their own private health plan, compared
to 24 percent who don’t.