Mr. Sullivan continues his demented, long-running performance of "Something Something Whig Something Something Burke" at the Theater of Conservative Make-Believe, once again putting Mr. Potato-head eyes on the steaming turd that is Modern Conservatism and pretending it's really a misunderstood Colonel Steve Austin action figure just itching to bust out of its box and put its Bionic Burke Power Arm to work saving the world.
Which is where my libertarianism cedes to conservatism. At some point, freedom must be tempered if its impact undermines the very social contract that allows it to exist. The inequality we are experiencing as a function of globalization, technology, recession and a tax system so complex it beggars understanding is a real and direct threat to our social coherence and stability as a democratic society. It seems to me conservatives should be among the first to recognize this danger – as Bismarck and Disraeli once did – and forge a public policy to counter it.Busting up banks? Universal health care? Spending real money on infrastructure and education? As pillars of Conservatism?
This conservatism would embrace universal healthcare as a bulwark of democratic legitimacy in an age of such extremes; it should break up the banks and bring back Glass-Steagall; it should drastically simplify the tax code, ridding it of special interest deductions; it should construct an international agreement to prevent the egregious and disgusting tax avoidance of a company like Apple; and it should seek to invest and innovate in education and infrastructure.
Some of this inequality cannot be stopped, the globalizing forces behind it are so strong. But mitigating its damage is a real challenge. And conservatives who believe that we are one nation should rise to it.
Somewhere in the wilds of Vermont, Bernie Sanders is laughing hard enough to shart maple syrup into orbit.
It is in the baroque grandiosity of the lies Mr. Sullivan tells himself about Conservatism that he is at his most Conservative.
Something Something Bismarck Something Something Disraeli.
7 comments:
Why was Sully against universal healthcare when Clinton was pushing it in 1993? He was doing the same thing every other conservative was doing back then. Sanders isn't the only one laughing.
The latest Sullivan installment of "REAL conservatives should act like mainstream Democrats, but not identify as such because HIPPIES!!!"
Right on time.
Also, anon#1 is right, and I'd also wager that if Bush had gotten through his two terms as just your typical bad, somewhat criminal GOP president rather than the epic fuckup from which this country may never recover, he'd still be firmly on the GOP team today and he'd have been happy to shout down a Democrat's attempt to reform health care again.
Sullivan has carved out his niche space as a so-called Reasonable Conservative or whatever only because he decided he didn't want to go down with Ship of Unfathomable Fail that is the GOP/conservative movement. And as has been so meticulously documented right here, he somehow builds independent/serious cred by suddenly, belatedly, realizing obvious truths that liberals have been saying for decades.
and then he says stupid shit like "Paul Ryan's budget is serious and thoughtful!" or "Even though he's an asshole Republican who would vote for McConnell as majority leader, I'd vote for Scott Brown because Elizabeth Warren has the audacity to be a woman with opinions on things and then say them out loud, and only Maggie Thatcher is allowed to do that" (well, he didn't SAY that, but that was what he was saying)
he's a very clever idiot, our Sully is.
Just wanted to congratulate you on a wonderful poop joke. Your obsession with shit comes in at #2 to the Brits occupation with all things urine, but "Bernie Sanders is laughing hard enough to shart maple syrup into orbit." is why I keep reading.
TR
Reading the excerpt, it's almost like Lil Andy thinks the tax code got all complicated all by itself. A little love tap with the clue club for Lil Andy: It isn't poor and middle class folks lobbying to treat hedge fund manager income at the considerably lower capital gains rate instead of the ordinary income rate.
Nincompoop.
People such as Sullivan, "Modern Conservatives", fail to understand how "Conservatives" don't find agreement with them on their Liberal values because Conservatism in America is simply an alias meant to disguise the fact that the people on the Right today are actually Fascists.
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