I read the article to mean that Republicans need to return to small government/less spending.
“…After that fight (over the ’95 Federal government shutdown), too many Republicans apparently concluded that America wanted bigger government…Since the party won the majority in 1994, the GOP Conference had been consistent in requiring offsetting spending cuts for any new spending initiatives….But by the summer of 1997, the appropriators…had begun to pass spending bills with Democrats.”
Whoever champions and delivers smaller government will win the libertarians. That could be a Southern Democrat or a traditional Republican (not Arnie or Bloomie).
