Is the Reagan coalition breaking up?

This week, New York Post columnist Ryan Sager, one of the most thoughtful young conservatives writing today, publishes an important new book, "The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party."

The gist of the book is that the coalition of religious conservatives and libertarian free-marketeers is breaking apart. The basic principle that held them together throughout the postwar era -- the idea that morality and virtue need to be freely chosen to have meaning -- is breaking down. The traditionalists have gotten the upper hand and increasingly reject the idea of freedom when it comes to things like gay marriage, pornography, drugs and abortion.

Bruce Bartlett

This is a pretty good analysis, overall. I think Bartlett misses the boat, though, when he fails to allow for those of us who consider ourselves both evangelical and libertarian. Christian brownshirts are as anathematic to us as are the hardest line atheist communists.

Also, Bush has destroyed the Reagan coalition not by merely courting evangelicals and ignoring libertarians. He has actively courted the left and attempted to triangulate their agenda, the result being that Bush has presided over one of the most left-leaning administrations since Roosevelt. He has cynically played all the evangelical's hot-button issues while simultaneously pushing a socialist agenda that would make every godless leftie beam with pride if it weren't for the fact that they have been brainwashed into hating him. Meanwhile, the traditional right tolerates him in deference to their fears over national security.