Nathan's doing some nice stuff on political philosophy over the last couple of days. You should check it out.

For example:

The GOP has some things right, of course; they want to restrain spending, and keep taxes down, and promote limited government.

None of these things are good in themselves, necessarily. You could almost add 'inefficient' to each item in the list, or something like that. Because good, helpful spending is good, and I'm happy to pay for it (as long as the boys making more than me are paying their fair share). It's a tough balance to hit, though.