The End of Conservative Wonkery

The indispensable Steve Sailer wants to know what all the think tanks are for.

Good question. Watching the failure of Rynacare Sailer has had the same thought as we. That is, what's the point of all this conservative policy wonkery? Since the 1980s conservative think tanks have been cranking out ideas in the form of papers and books on everything from schools to tax reform to healthcare and on and on.

As mentioned in this space before, we're roughly the same age as Speaker (dead man walking) Ryan and we both came of age politically exposed to NR and the Weekly Standard and George Will. Ryan first served under the ultimate conservative policy wonk, New Gingrich, another failed speaker. When I was a young CR in the early 90's they passed out free copies of Jack Kemp's Liberal Cliches and Conservative Solutions.

We are wracking our brains here trying to think of a time when one of these ideas took hold and worked, or even was signed into law.

Remember President Bush's Office of Faith Based Charities? Neither does anyone else.
We know how No Child Left Behind has transformed education.
Hey, how did Bush's planned Social Security Reform work out?
Who can forget the success of President Bush's 2006 comprehensive immigration reform?

Look guys, I say this as unrepentant Neocon, this is the end. There will be no more conservative wonkery and ideas. We've failed. Our man is running the show and he's failed miserably. He should resign now and get a gig running a think tank..

Paul Ryan deserves no better.