Conservative incompetence.

• Author: Evangelou, Steve
• Position: Letter to the editor

Great article ("Why Conservatives Can't Govern," by Alan Wolfe, July/August). Though perhaps overly harsh, it seems to accurately depict the majority of the Republican conservatives who currently rule the country.

I was once a Republican, and considered myself a conservative, meaning that I was in favor of limited government and personal and fiscal responsibility. I'm no longer a Republican and no longer consider myself a conservative, and am outraged at how those in power absolve themselves of fiscal and personal responsibility.

STEVE EVANGELOU

Walnut Creek, Calif.

Alan Wolfe argues that "Refusing to acknowledge the importance of government while relying on it to achieve your objective causes the same kind of chaos in foreign policy that it does in matters closer to home."

Bush's Iraq is a mess, Wolfe argues, not because government does as poor a job at social engineering in Baghdad as in the United States, but because Republicans lack Tinkerbell's belief in the effectiveness of government. Unlike, say Lyndon Johnson's masterful handling of the Vietnam War, Jimmy Carter's deft use of Keynesian economics to provide low inflation and economic growth, Bill Clinton's Churchillian handling of Somalia and al Qaeda, Sudan, and Haiti. Or former California governor Grey Davis' handling of California, Louisiana Gov. Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Nagin's recent lessons in effective Democratic governance. And The Washington Monthly is named after a city that is governed by people who truly, truly believe in the wonderfulness of big government.

Ronald Reagan expected and asked the government to do less. Inflation fell from double digits. Over 44 million jobs have been created since January of 1981. Less regulation and lower taxes brought in more revenue. He broke the neck of the Soviet Union without a war or occupation, but by cutting off loans, and doing small but critical things in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan, and Eastern Europe.

Bush has asked the government to do a very big and complicated thing in Iraq. The left wants government to do many big things all at once. But government is like a baseball bat. Fine for killing things and smashing up the place: Tokyo 1945, Berlin 1945, Iraq 1991 and 2003. But when you ask government to do an appendectomy with said baseball bat it leaves blood all over the floor and it doesn't work out well for the patient.

Big government doesn't work well. The East Germans really truly believed. There was no lack of faith...