Yuval Levin and Peter Wehner, scholars at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, have an excellent article in today’s New York Sun that you can read here. They write:
This is precisely what an earlier generation of conservatives accomplished, Levin and Wehner note, with regard to crime, welfare, and taxes. The problem, as David Brooks points out today, is that so far the GOP presidential candidates haven’t engaged on such policy turf. Now, I think Brooks is too charitable towards Hillary Clinton‘s latest middle class subsidy proposal, and neglects Mitt Romney‘s policy heft. But the problem to which he points is real. On the other hand, most voters judge candidates on matters that have almost nothing to do with policy. They look at things like character, likability, and moral seriousness on the great issues of war and peace. The policy stuff, while important for intellectuals, comes into play only when a new president is inaugurated.
