Wanted: Heroes not Neros

Legend is that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

In this Opinion Piece by Mickey Edwards, former Reagan Administration official, former Republican Congressman, and co-cofounder of Heritage Foundation, Mickey Edwards argues that Conservative Reaganism stands for effective limited government, not merely a "small government" that relies on the private sector for everything. Thanks to reader Sasquatch for bringing this to piece to our attention.

Edwards argues that conservatives "also have an obligation to propose alternative solutions. It is government's job -- Reagan again -- to provide opportunity and foster productivity. With the nation in financial collapse, nothing is more imprudent -- more antithetical to true conservatism -- than to do nothing."

• The knock on the Republican Hoover administration is that it didn't do enough to respond to the Great Depression.
• The knock on the Democratic Roosevelt administration is that its tax and spend policies lengthened and deepened the great depression.

If you're in a burning economic crises, you don't want to see your emperor fiddling on the violin while nature takes its course.

On the other hand, you don't want to see your emperor hiring legions of workers to build new palaces, just to keep people busy and money flowing.

We need an economic policy that satisfies political demand and makes economic sense.