It is easier to make an appealing liberal case on social and domestic issues than a conservative one. Liberals essentially feel your pain and design government solutions and spending to address them. I love the story of President Lyndon Johnson, who, in his 1964 presidential campaign, demanded a brief unscheduled stop of his limo, grabbed a bullhorn and said, “We’re for a lot of things and against mighty few.” That should still be the liberal mantra today, more than 50 years later.

Conservatives, on the other hand, mostly play defense against big government solutions and spending. Conservative godfather William Buckley famously said that conservatives “stand athwart history yelling ‘stop.’” Unlike Johnson, conservatives are not at all certain what they are for, but they have generally known what they are against, namely more government, especially more federal government.