If nothing else, Thom Tillis is thoughtful. North Carolina’s senior senator does his homework and tries to root arguments in principle.
Whether those principles are the ones voters want is a different matter, but regardless, he’s always worth listening to.
Since announcing he won’t run again in 2026, Tillis has also become more candid — including in a long interview just recorded with CBS News at Lake Norman hotspot Hello, Sailor. You can watch the full thing here.
What struck me most wasn’t a single hot take, or even that he sounds more like a Clintonian Democrat than a modern-day Republican. It was how often he reached for the phrase “limited government.”
That’s been a catchphrase since the Reagan era, and it’s not a bad instinct. It’s also one of the most misunderstood ideas in American politics.
Limited government isn’t weak government. It’s constrained government — power bounded by jurisdiction and law that does its core duties exceptionally well and refuses to do the rest.
Reagan put…
