Often when I discuss politics with those who are avid lefties, I'll hear comments like these:
"Who will you call when your house is on fire and there's no fire department?"
"Don't you want highways and schools and bridges...." etc., etc., etc.
Virtually all of the conservatives and libertarians I know are not in favor of no government. They want less government. There is a difference!
Arthur Brooks well explains it.
A bigger issue is what I see as a straw man argument emerging—the idea that what people like Paul Ryan and me really want today is zero government. This is not so. In our WSJ piece, we write, “Even Friedrich Hayek, in his famous book, The Road to Serfdom, reminded us that the state has legitimate—and critical—functions, from rectifying market failures to securing some minimum standard of living.”
Congressman Ryan and I are not anti-government. On the contrary, we are looking for ways to stop the rapidly expanding state from destroying its own legitimacy.
If this was true then they would have spoken up during the 8 year Cheney/Bush expansion of government.
It's only an issue now because of partisan politics, as is your whole blog. It's only an issue when the Democrats are in power. Never a peep when the Republicans are doing the exact same thing.
Posted by: jammen | Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 07:57 AM
Ridiculous. Plenty of people "peeped" - including myself, on a variety of topics. I "peeped" when GWB supported steel protections, when the ridiculous "drug benefit" went into effect for seniors - and on other issues, like signing the horrific McCain-Feingold bill and supporting "protecting marriage" types of legislation. And - I was not alone.
Is it impossible for you to stick to the truth, Jammen? Easy to find lots of conservatives and libertarians who "peeped" then and still do today. It did take, however, this launch into uber-spending and disaster to wake up the masses.
Posted by: Peg | Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 08:05 AM
Peg, try reading your posts sometime. They are archived you know.
Your hypocrisy billows through every post. You may think that you are principled, but your blatent partisan politics poison your arguments.
Self-deceived or lying? I will let the discerning reader be the judge of that.
Posted by: jammen | Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 08:34 AM