Recommended: What Republicans Think

David Brooks has once again written an outstanding piece in the New York Times: What Republicans Think. He argues that the real divide in the upcoming election between Republicans and Democrats is that the Republicans think the old big government welfare state model is no longer workable (and Europe's current crises seem to highlight that) and needs to be rethought from the ground up, while Democrats think it is still a workable model and just needs more tinkering (and more money) to keep it functioning.

He makes no judgment himself (in this piece, at least) as to which side has the better argument, but since the current model has the federal government borrowing almost half of the entire budget each year, it seems pretty clear to me that the current system is badly broken, and probably not repairable with minor tinkering, especially as there is little prospect of making more money available.