There’s been a large number of science-fiction movies and shows, like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or the evil “Borg” from Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which an alien force takes over individuals, usually leaving them appearing to be nearly normal...but the viewer knows better. In every case, there’s at least one character in the movie who seems able to avoid being taken over or “assimilated” by the Pod People, the evil blob, or whatever but eventually succumbs, becoming part of the enemy he had once valiantly fought.

This week we see the "assimilation" of a once-leading conservative voice:

I’ve generally been a fan of Bruce Bartlett’s aggressive “classical liberal” writings, including his book “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy.”

But his Monday article at Politico.com, entitled “GOP must adapt to welfare state” sounds more like Bartlett turning into Bush and waving a white flag of surrender than maintaining his long-held principles.

Bartlett argues that “there is simply no appetite for big spending cuts” or tax cuts or serious welfare reform among the American electorate, especially during an economic downturn. For some reason Bartlett thinks it’s relevant to note that President Eisenhower “rejected any attempt to repeal the New Deal” and President Nixon “made no effort to roll back the Great Society after he was elected in 1968.”

And someone he thinks that point deserves the same weight as pointing out that his former boss, Ronald Reagan, “understood that the burden of government is more easily borne if economic growth is high.”

Somehow, strangely for someone who worked in the Treasury Department and is theoretically a conservative Republican, Bartlett doesn’t put two and two (big taxes and big spending) together to admit that growth in the size, intrusiveness, and cost of government saps the strength of the overall economy.

Bartlett basically concludes that Republicans should just accept that the welfare state not only will never go away, but it will never stop growing. He says “The sooner conservatives accept that fact, the sooner they will regain political power.”

Not only do I disagree with the conclusion, but it is also a remarkable departure for a guy who in the past has at least pretended to care about principle more than political party.

Bartlett is not only wrong on principle, he’s also wrong to believe that behaving the way he suggests will benefit the GOP politically. If the Republicans have learned anything in recent years, it’s that if the two available political parties are the Democrats and the might-as-well-be-Democrats-except-for-abortion, the former will always win.

Instead of Bruce Bartlett, Republicans need to listen to the words of Robert Novak who said “God put the Republican Party on Earth to cut taxes. If they don't do that, they have no useful function.”

The problem for Republicans is not that the public is predisposed to liberal policies, especially liberal economic policies. It’s that Republicans don’t walk the talk, and they do a terrible job explaining why “classical liberal” (now called “conservative” or “supply-side”) economic principles are superior…for people’s wallets and for our liberty.

Bartlett’s statement that it is unrealistic “to think that taxes can be kept at 19 percent of GDP when spending is projected to grow by about 50 percent of GDP over the next generation” shows that he’s already given up, given in, and become the newest RINO. We don’t have to sit around and accept massive spending growth without a fight. Indeed, we must not. It’s not just a few percentage points of our income which is at stake. It is the heart of our liberty, our economic vitality, and the true American soul as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson properly understood it.

Bruce Bartlett has been assimilated. And although he may still look like the man we once knew, those of us who vow to fight for what is right will never again believe he is not an unwitting agent of the enemy.