Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and the new era of conservative policy ideas

While he hasn’t endorsed the entirely of this agenda, Rubio appears to be moving in the direction of Lee’s basic political insight: instead of repeating Reagan’s 1980 platform, they should repeat his example of trying to make conservatism accessible — and materially helpful — to non-ideological people.

Even these slight shifts are likely to provoke intraparty debates as the 2016 primaries draw closer. Libertarian-leaning Republicans don’t much like the child tax credit, seeing it as irrelevant to economic growth at best and social engineering via the tax code at worst.

Some simply don’t see tax breaks for families — a part of the Contract with America, expanded under George W. Bush — as being much different from subsidies to Solyndra. Others worry that a larger child tax credit would inevitably mean higher tax rates on work and investment, thereby inhibiting growth.

You don’t have to agree with all of the aforementioned proposals to see how different the Republican Party would look if Lee’s policy entrepreneurship with Paul and Rubio gained traction: less identified with war, wiretapping, and mandatory minimum sentences;