https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d2d8c2-4f7f-11e6-a422-83ab49ed5e6a_story.html
After watching the Republican National Committee’s convention this week, I think I’ve figured out what’s going on.
The problem is that Americans — and conservatives in particular — claim to want small, stingily funded government. But they’re making bigger (and more expensive, and less legally achievable) demands about what government should be responsible for.
This cognitive dissonance inevitably leads to disillusionment.
In other words: Deep down, Republicans want a nanny state, but they just can’t bring themselves to admit it.
What kind of nanny state do these alleged fans of limited government desire? The kind that fulfills their wildest fantasies, yes, but more importantly that cocoons their constituents from offense, discomfort and perhaps even financial distress.
As illustrated by the 2016 GOP platform, they want government to protect heterosexual couples from the indignity of having their marriages seen as equal, in the eyes of the law, to marriages between same-sex partners.
They likewise want policymakers to bar transgender Americans from using the public bathroom of their choice, lest those in neighboring bathroom stalls feel vaguely threatened.
They want government to protect religious freedom, yet they also want government to expel holders of select religious beliefs — a policy that couldn’t possibly pass constitutional muster even if you could figure out a way to implement it. (People can lie about their religious beliefs, after all.)
They also want their small, spartan government to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, quickly and on the cheap, but “in a very humane way, a very nice way.”
They want government to keep consumer prices low, but also to curb imports of competing products that help keep those consumer prices low. Avocados, for example. Or electronics.
They apparently want government to protect workers from the threat of technological innovation. At least that’s one way to interpret all the stumping for coal, an industry whose main challenge comes from competition from natural gas, which technology has made much cheaper to extract. Or the pandering to U.S. manufacturing, whose output is up but workforce size is not. Again, thanks to technology.
They want government to mandate funerals for miscarriages. They want it to micromanage the width of hallways in reproductive health clinics and the medical center affiliations of abortion providers. They want policymakers to protect their constituents from the temptations of pornography and medical marijuana.
They want government to lock up or even execute conservatives’ perceived political enemies.
They (like the left) even want government to break up the banks.
And so on.
These are not the positions of a party that truly, madly, deeply desires limited government.
After watching the Republican National Committee’s convention this week, I think I’ve figured out what’s going on.
The problem is that Americans — and conservatives in particular — claim to want small, stingily funded government. But they’re making bigger (and more expensive, and less legally achievable) demands about what government should be responsible for.
This cognitive dissonance inevitably leads to disillusionment.
In other words: Deep down, Republicans want a nanny state, but they just can’t bring themselves to admit it.
What kind of nanny state do these alleged fans of limited government desire? The kind that fulfills their wildest fantasies, yes, but more importantly that cocoons their constituents from offense, discomfort and perhaps even financial distress.
As illustrated by the 2016 GOP platform, they want government to protect heterosexual couples from the indignity of having their marriages seen as equal, in the eyes of the law, to marriages between same-sex partners.
They likewise want policymakers to bar transgender Americans from using the public bathroom of their choice, lest those in neighboring bathroom stalls feel vaguely threatened.
They want government to protect religious freedom, yet they also want government to expel holders of select religious beliefs — a policy that couldn’t possibly pass constitutional muster even if you could figure out a way to implement it. (People can lie about their religious beliefs, after all.)
They also want their small, spartan government to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, quickly and on the cheap, but “in a very humane way, a very nice way.”
They want government to keep consumer prices low, but also to curb imports of competing products that help keep those consumer prices low. Avocados, for example. Or electronics.
They apparently want government to protect workers from the threat of technological innovation. At least that’s one way to interpret all the stumping for coal, an industry whose main challenge comes from competition from natural gas, which technology has made much cheaper to extract. Or the pandering to U.S. manufacturing, whose output is up but workforce size is not. Again, thanks to technology.
They want government to mandate funerals for miscarriages. They want it to micromanage the width of hallways in reproductive health clinics and the medical center affiliations of abortion providers. They want policymakers to protect their constituents from the temptations of pornography and medical marijuana.
They want government to lock up or even execute conservatives’ perceived political enemies.
They (like the left) even want government to break up the banks.
And so on.
These are not the positions of a party that truly, madly, deeply desires limited government.
lol
