Our glorious quest for bigger government must continue

So what should Obama do? First, he shouldn’t give up on health care. In the short term, the public’s diminished faith in government has turned Americans against his proposed reforms. But in the long term, restoring that faith requires showing Americans that government can address the health-care challenge. By passing Social Security and Medicare, Democrats proved that government could tangibly improve people’s lives, which increased trust in government, and helped the party of government—the Democrats—win election after election. Another successful expansion of the welfare state could have a similarly profound effect in the decades to come. Conversely, if Democrats fail, it will just validate the Republican argument that government can’t improve people’s lives—and in that environment, the party of government will usually lose.

Secondly, if Republicans prevent Obama from passing any more big legislation, he should do what Bill Clinton did after 1994: Find small but resonant ways of using his executive authority to show that government really can improve people’s lives. The reason that Clinton’s micro-initiatives—from school uniforms to the V-chip—helped resuscitate his presidency was that they belied the Republican claim that activist government undermined people’s quality of life. In small ways, Clinton showed that activist government clearly improved people’s quality of life, and the public noticed. Clinton also baited the Gingrich Congress into attacking those elements of government that people already valued—from Medicare and Social Security to education spending and environmental protection. If Republicans win big this November, Obama may be able to effectively pick such fights again.