A Campaign to Divide and Conquer : Alexander’s aim is to get Washington out of people’s lives.

In “The Art of War,” the ancient Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu counseled generals to avoid attacking fortified emplacements. Lamar Alexander must have read the book. He understands that Washington must be encircled and isolated, not frontally assaulted. After a three-year Long March across America, the former education secretary and Tennessee governor returned on Tuesday to his hometown of Maryville, Tenn., to announce his presidential candidacy. Alexander’s moderate appearance is deceiving; he has the most radical message of any of the Republican candidates. If elected, he might genuinely outflank what he calls Washington’s “arrogant empire.”

For decades, both liberals and conservatives have used Potomac power to help their friends and hurt their enemies. Issues became political footballs, to be tossed, kicked and spiked. As politicians preened in the D.C. arena, legitimate concerns about crime and education, for example, were trivialized into symbolic spats over assault weapons and school prayer. With the White House and Congress bickering over such tangentials, the quality of life for 250 million Americans declined.

Those Republicans in the 104th Congress who seek real reform are now learning that they can’t win battles in Georgetown or Foggy Bottom because the bipartisan “permanent government” can shoot them down from marble rooftops. The Gingrichified House chopped $17 billion out of social programs for the poor, but it couldn’t manage more than a 1% cut in spending for lawmakers’ personal staffs. There’s a word for that-- hypocrisy. If the government must shrink, let it shrink. As a sign of good faith, the Republicans ought to cut appropriations for white-collar politicos at least as deeply as they reduce funding for elderly housing and child nutrition.

If this unfairness keeps up, the Democrats will end up back in power. But until then, they’ll have to settle for Republicans who will do their work for them, like Rep. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). Roberts, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, recently stopped a proposal to turn the $27-billion food stamp program into block grants for the states. This undercut the Republican welfare-reform plan, which is based on devolving anti-poverty authority to the states. But Roberts doesn’t worry about welfare reform; that’s for city folk. Roberts, of Dodge City (pop. 22,000), worries about farmers, and they like the food-stamp program just the way it is. This episode reveals the perversity of the current Washington-centered system, in which a single elected official can effectively dictate national policy.

Revealingly, Roberts’ behavior generated little criticism in Washington. The dirty secret of Powertown is that all the combatants in the partisan and ideological wars find it convenient to do their battling inside the Beltway and then impose a decision on the country; the popular term is “one-stop shopping.” Few Washingtonians want to schlep to Baton Rouge or Bismarck or Boise to lobby state legislatures, let alone to learn from the people.

Enter Alexander, who argues that “Republican micromanagement from Washington is just as bad as Democratic micromanagement.” In contrast to the Beltway GOP, Alexander offers a principled strategy: All social-welfare programs--some $200-billion worth--should go back to the states, on the theory that such functions should be administered by the level of government closest to the people. Let the 50 states, not the one national capital, decide who gets what.

Lots of Republicans talk like that; what distinguishes Alexander is his consistent application of that federalist principle. While he supports the same tough welfare-reform ideas as do the “contract” Republicans, Alexander would allow the newly empowered states to do their own thing, welfare-wise, without interference from Washington. Pushed to a hypothetical extreme, Daniel Casse, Alexander’s campaign-issues adviser, says that if a state chose to put up beneficiaries in the Ritz complete with room service, President Alexander would point out the folly of such a plan--but would not quash it.

Alexander is a laid-back radical who seeks an anti-Washington alliance with problem-solving governors--the real heroes of welfare and education reform--to up-end government-as-usual. If his flanking states maneuver succeeds, he will change government far more profoundly than any inside-the-Beltway pendulum swing to the right or to the left. If Americans at the grass roots are protected from both donkeys and elephants stomping on their dreams, then 50 flowers of policy diversity would bloom across the country. And that would be a big defeat for Big Government.