"Deploy the Little Platoons"

This op-ed, "Let's Deploy the Little Platoons:  A Conservative Vision of Social Justice," by Republican Senator Rick Santorum and Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservative Party in Great Britain, is worth a read.  I blogged a few weeks ago about Santorum's new book, "It Takes a Family:  Conservativism and the Common Good," and about his very different vision of justice and society than that espoused by the more libertarian right.  In this op-ed, the authors say more about what they characterize as a "conservative" approach to promoting social justice:

In many conservative circles, "social justice" is synonymous with socialism or radical individualism. No wonder: For decades, the political left has used it as a Trojan horse for its big-state agenda. Yet the wreckage of their policies is obvious. Compared to the U.S., most European economies are struggling with inflation, unemployment, low growth and a declining tax base; nearly all European societies are burdened with increased crime and family breakdown; and there is a draining away of hope and opportunity.

Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond are charting a new vision of social justice. It recognizes that the problems caused or aggravated by the growth in government cannot be corrected by a crude reduction in its size. Policy must also deliberately foster the growth of what Edmund Burke called "the little platoons" of civil society: families, neighborhood associations, private enterprises, charities and churches. These are the real source of economic growth and social vitality.

Rick