For half of America, big government sounds good

Among the reactions to the November 6 elections, the most common among conservatives might be shock. That very fact might indicate that too many of us have been living in an echo chamber, reassuring each other about our mutually-held convictions without listening to those who are, at best, ambivalent about conservativism.

For example, Mitt Romney’s message of economic freedom, utterly persuasive to the conservative ear, was unconvincing to members of a powerful new demographic who cast their votes overwhelmingly for Barack Obama: single women. For the first time in our nation’s history there a...