The Problem With Conservatism Is Conservatism

[Joanne98]

George Packer's recent piece on the fall of conservatism missed a key point that eludes conservatives in general -- replacing the government with free-market forces simply hasn't worked in practice.

Greg Anrig | June 2, 2008 | web only

George Packer's New Yorker piece, "The Fall of Conservatism," and the reactions to it among leading thinkers on the right leave little doubt that the patient under scrutiny is indeed gravely ill. But the wide assortment of sometimes contradictory diagnoses and cures suggested by various despondent conservatives in Packer's article and elsewhere all seem to miss the central problem: The main idea that propelled the conservative movement's political success -- that replacing the government with free-market forces would make everyone better off -- simply hasn't worked in practice.

Since the Reagan administration, we have seen time and again that curtailing the government's role to unleash market forces doesn't solve much of anything and in some cases makes things worse. In practice, virtually the only beneficiaries of conservative policies have been the same wealthy families and corporate executives who bankrolled the Republican Party and the conservative movement's elaborate anti-government network. Throughout a period of soaring economic inequality, stagnating wages, the deterioration of the medical-insurance system, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the Katrina debacle, global warming, and so on, the government sat on its hands while hewing to the mantra that free markets work best. In each case, the problems festered and worsened. Those real-world failures, combined with the right's deeply entrenched hostility toward regulations, civil servants, and even successful government programs, now leaves them without an agenda that will plausibly deliver greater economic security, better health care, a cleaner environment, improved schools, and lower public-health and safety risks.

Sundry conservative thinkers, including some cited in Packer's article, have been churning out books, articles, and op-eds putting forward their ideas for, as the subtitle to former Bush speechwriter David Frum's new book puts it: "conservatism that can win again." They argue for emphasizing a wide range of different themes: e.g., problem solving (Frum), "leave us alone" (Grover Norquist), bureaucracy busting (Newt Gingrich), embracing America's ideals (Michael Gerson), courting the working class (Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam), and reforming public institutions (Yuval Levin).

But beyond the variety of rhetorical flourishes and areas of emphasis that such authors endorse, their policy agendas more or less remain tethered to a minimal role for government and reliance on market forces to address challenges. So most of them support some combination of tax cuts, injecting more financial incentives into the health-care system, "tort reform," school vouchers, contracting out government activities, Social Security privatization, deregulation, and cuts in "entitlement programs" generally. Invariably, they argue that such policies will improve the lives of everyone, notwithstanding abundant evidence to the contrary

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_problem_with_conservatism_is_conservatism_

[Iris]

1. Good read. Particularly liked the part about how Hurricane Katrina

made such an impact, especially after the right wingers tried to spin that tragedy as the failure of individuals to take care of themselves.

[roseBudd]

2. The problem with Katrina is that the visuals were so disturbing and the reactions on the right

showed they are heartless & cruel. You wouldn't treat a dog like that.