Howard Dean, call your office...

You and the unhinged liberals Democratic party have Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) all wrong. Just ask Mattias A. Caro of Icarus Fallen He offers the following to support his eyebrow-raising claim:

Santorum isn't a conservative. What??? Read his latest book, It Takes a Family, a counter to Hilary's turn-of-the-millennium book, It take's a Village. Santorum rests his thought on two key conception: promotion of the common good and absolute protection for human dignity. These principles are the hall marks of Catholic Social Teaching, not conservatism per se which talks of more practical principle like a limited-state, strong national defense, etc.

Where's the difference? It's in the practical applications. Santorum, for example, favors school-vouchers and tax deductions. Both expand not constrict the state. That at best rounds counter to conservative thought. So why is he so tied as the poster boy of conservatism? Easy: abortion. Santorum is a champion of pro-life causes, the #1 divider of political groups in the US. I'm not so sure that if abortion weren't an issue, that a man like Santorum wouldn't have a D instead of an R by his name.

Mr. Caro's associate, Jacques Arsenault, questions his controversial theory. A lively exchange of comments ensues. While Mr. Caro satisfies Mr. Arsenault's concerns in the end, I remain unconvinced.

He reasons that tax-cuts and school vouchers both enlarge the state. Since conservatism calls for a reduction in government, advocating policies that enlarge the state can't be conservative. Therefore, anyone that endorses tax-cuts and school vouchers--like Senator Santorum--is not a conservative. He explains in a comment to Mr. Arsenault why he believes tax-cuts and school vouchers enlarge the state:

I was trying to look at it from another angle, namely that in terms of a cornerstone of conservative thought, ie limited government, tax cuts and school vouchers I find create MORE government than less by expanding beaurocracy and creating yet another layer for people to slog through. Each tax cut expands the IRS' reach and the tax code itself while the limited-experience with vouchers shows a necessary creation of government beaurocracy and a somewhat redistribusionist mentality. Does that make them necessarily bad ideas? No but it doesn't in my opinion make them resonate clearly with conservative values.

His conclusions don't follow from his premises here. While tax-cuts may alter the tax code, they don't necessarily expand the reach of the IRS in enforcing the code. In fact, the added responsibility, without a corresponding increase in personnel or budgetary resources, may actually reduce the involvement of the IRS in peoples lives. Likewise, his analysis of school vouchers suffers. While previous implementations of school vouchers may have created additional bureacracy, future models of implementation need not do so. Superior management of a properly designed school vouchers program could reduce bureacracy; it certainly does not need to enlarge it.

Mr. Caro thus fails to establish that tax-cuts and school vouchers enlarge the state. Therefore, he has no logical reason to conclude that Mr. Santorum is any less of a conservative than any other established conservative, on either side of the Atlantic.