ABSTRACT
The substance of Steering is best expressed in the deliberate irony of the title; the elephant stands both as an analogy for government—ponderous, overweight, crushing—and as a symbol of the Republican party, divided as usual. The hierarchical, socially conservative wing has to be concerned about shoring up authority to legitimate intervention in social life. Even the individualistic, economically conservative wing requires presidential authority to undo governmental intervention it does not like. People who take the reigning ideologies too seriously, as if adherence to them constituted a protective shield, should know better. For them, as for the bureaucrats they are concerned about, government has become a dangerous place. The importance of personal energy, a resource presumably available across the ideological spectrum, is once again reaffirmed.
