Costanza Conservatism

On the sitcom Seinfeld (the greatest half-hour tv show of all time), a series of episodes centers on the concept of a sitcom within the sitcom, as Jerry is approached by NBC executives to create a pilot for a comedy tv series. Jerry's best friend George Costanza has the brilliant idea to make a "show about nothing". "Everybody's doing something; we'll do nothing." In typical Costanza style, however, he takes his gem of an idea too far when pitching it to the executives. Here's that part of the script…

GEORGE: I think I can sum up the show for you with one word: NOTHING.
RUSSELL: Nothing?
GEORGE: (Smiling) Nothing.
RUSSELL: (Unimpressed) What does that mean?
GEORGE: The show is about nothing.
JERRY: (To George) Well, it's not about nothing.
GEORGE: (To Jerry) No, it's about nothing.
JERRY: Well, maybe in philosophy. But, even nothing is something.
…
RUSSELL: All right, tell me, tell me about the stories. What kind of stories?
GEORGE: Oh, no. No stories.
RUSSELL: No stories? So, what is it?
GEORGE: (Showing an example) What'd you do today?
RUSSELL: I got up and came to work.
GEORGE: There's a show. That's a show.
RUSSELL: (Confused) How is that a show?
JERRY: Well, uh, maybe something happens on the way to work.
GEORGE: No, no, no. Nothing happens.

I feel similarly about some conservatives' view of the proper role of government, at least as judged by their criticisms of Mike Huckabee. Apparently, if you believe government should actually accomplish something, then you are no longer conservative. Rather than a philosophy of limited government, they seem to advocate no government involvement at all (except, of course, for the military). Almost a hyper-libertarianism. If you suggest, as Russell and Jerry do above, that something must happen to truly have a show worth watching, that the government should actually work for the good of the people, then the Costanza Conservatives rant that you just don't get it. No, no, no. Nothing happens.

I get it. I'm a Seinfeld Conservative. The philosophy of nothing is proper, but it is not absolute. The government should have a light footprint in our lives, but not no footprint. It should be limited, but where it exists, it should work. It should be efficient and effective. There should be recognition that some problems, beyond national defense, do lend themselves to governing solutions. Pollution, to take one example of a public-good problem. Or consider the Hurricane Katrina response.

It's easy to sit back and be grumpy, to offer the political equivalent of "hey you kids, get off of my lawn!" It takes work and effort to actually lead, to govern. And if we are to have government, it should be government that works.