The Economist's Lexington columnist takes a very interesting look at the fundamental differences between the small government conservatism of Barry Goldwater and the large government conservatism of George W. Bush. Lexington writes,

Although he went down to a huge defeat in the 1964 presidential election, Goldwater did as much as anybody to launch the modern conservative movement. Yet everywhere you look, the Republican Party is abandoning his principles.

The senator's conservatism was rooted in small government. But today's Grand Old Party has morphed into the “Grand Old Spending Party”, as the libertarian Cato Institute dubs it. Total government spending grew by 33% in George Bush's first term. Goldwater's hostility to big government also extended to government meddling in people's private lives. He thundered that social conservatives such as Jerry Falwell deserved “a swift kick in the ass”, and insisted that the decision to have an abortion should be “up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the religious right”. For Goldwater, abortion was “not a conservative issue at all”. For many Republicans today, it often seems to be the only conservative issue.

[...]

In the 1990s, Mr Bush calculated that small-government conservatism had run its course as an election-winning strategy. So he embraced conservatism with a happy face, expanding the Department of Education, not killing it. Karl Rove summed up this philosophy at a recent meeting of conservative activists as putting “government on the side of progress and reform, modernisation and greater freedom”.

This love affair with big government has been inflamed by the experience of power. Ten years ago, the champions of conservatism were anti-government radicals such as Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey. Today they are patronage-wallahs like Tom DeLay. The congressional Republican Party, once a brake on spending, is now an accelerator. Congress trimmed Mr Clinton's budgets by $57 billion in 1996-2001; in Mr Bush's first term, it added an extra $91 billion of domestic spending.

Lexington raises a number of important issues here but, to rehash, makes at least two very potent points comparing the Republican Party of today with the Grand Old Party of yesteryear:

• "For Goldwater, abortion was “not a conservative issue at all”. For many Republicans today, it often seems to be the only conservative issue."
  
• "Ten years ago, the champions of conservatism were anti-government radicals such as Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey. Today they are patronage-wallahs like Tom DeLay."

These two facts get to the heart of American politics today. The Goldwater/libertarian strain of conservatism no longer has a home within the Republican Party. And although libertarian Republicans will not soon defect to the Democratic Party -- which agrees with them on moral, but not economic issues -- they could be sufficiently disgusted by GOP extremism to stay at home in November 2006 or vote for Libertarian Party candidates. Should this happen, the Republican Party could be in for a rude awakening.