Why Small Government Has Collapsed

Democrats have never been so well positioned to sell big-government liberalism—as the other side looks pathetically out of step with Americans’ desires to expand health care and bolster infrastructure, says the American Prospect’s Paul Waldman. After the Minnesota bridge collapse, the public is ready for the party that says “we’re all in it together” rather than “we’re all on our own.”

The GOP candidates reject expanding state-sponsored insurance for children and Bush threatens to veto its growth—even though 84% of Americans want the program to cover all uninsured children. But Waldman seconds conservative Andrew Sullivan’s claim that Hillary Clinton is still shell-shocked from the anti-government 90s—and worries the Dems may not seize “the greatest political opportunity [they’ve] had in decades.” (More health care stories.)