Attitudes toward government itself are still far less positive than they were in the early 1960s, before the cultural revolution, Vietnam, and Watergate. But philosophical hostility toward government has ebbed, replaced by a pragmatic inclination sympathetic to the expansion of public goods and in search of public action in spheres such as education, child care, health care, and the effort to right the balance between work and family life. Here again, the conservative Ponnuru is more persuasive than any moderate or liberal could be. What these conservatives sense is that, at a level of politics deeper than the fortunes of the political parties, the ground is shifting away from them. Issues were used at election time to divide voters.
Problems demand solutions after the election is over.
The book saw conservatives as suffering from a deep tension between their free-market, antigovernment libertarian wing and a traditionalist wing more interested in defending values that had come under attack in the 1960s than in market economics. Liberals were also in trouble. With both parties to the debate in difficulty, politics worked itself out as a series of wars. Conservatives might not unite around a program, but they could agree to roll back liberalism. Why Americans Hate Politics suggested that a new political center was waiting to be born.