Three Cheers for Divided Government

Steve Chapman makes the case in the Washington Times that conservatives should welcome the Democratic takeover of Congress.

Despite its traditional principles, the GOP's monopoly in Washington has merely freed Republicans to indulge the empire-building, power-lusting, overspending, control-freaking elements that all politicians harbor deep in their souls. Government outlays have swelled, government intrusions have expanded, and the only reason the 82nd Airborne no longer escorts kids to kindergarten is that the job has gotten too dangerous.
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When federal power was last split, some of the GOP's good ideas became law: replacing welfare with workfare, curbing the growth of spending and forcing the government to live within its means. And many of its bad ideas -- authorizing state-sponsored prayer in schools, criminalizing leaks of classified material -- went nowhere.