What limited government actually means
Tillis reaches for the old conservative catchphrase, with hits and misses along the way.
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…