I intend to devote the next three columns in this series on “the next conservatism” to the state.  The state and the potential threat it poses to things conservatives value, including both our liberties and our traditional culture, have long lain at the heart of conservative thinking.  But I think the next conservatism will have to look at the state more broadly than it has in the past, and that is what I intend to do.

Nonetheless, I think the next conservatism will have to start by considering the danger of the state, not because that (justified) fear is new to us, but because we need to shape our thinking to some new realities. The most important of those new realities is the fact that, because of the War on Terrorism, America may be on the verge of becoming a national security state, which in the past used to be called a “garrison state.” That means citizens will allow the state to do almost anything it wants so long as it justifies its actions in terms of “national security.” In effect, the Constitution and the rule of law itself go out the window, along with our liberties.