Conservatism: "Fantastic MisGovernment Is NOT An Accident-It Is The Consequence Of Triumph"

[kpete]

Tuesday :: Sep 2, 2008
The Wrecking Crew

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Thomas Frank's latest book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, provides a comprehensive review of the conservative movement from the heady days of Reagan's first term to the later years of conservative misrule under George W Bush. Frank uses the story of Jack Abramoff, corrupt lobbyist, to illustrate the philosophy of the conservative true believers and the trail of wreckage they have left during their time in power. And he makes a compelling argument that these results are to be expected because unlike liberals who believe government should address the problems of people, for conservatives, the role of government is to comfort the comfortable by appropriating the wealth and the power of the government to support business and those who rightfully rule.

But the truth is almost exactly the opposite, whether we are discussing Abramoff of the wider tsunami of corruption. The truth is as obvious as a slab of sirloin and yet so obscured by decades of pettifoggery that we find it almost impossible to apprehend clearly. The truth slaps your face in every hotel lobby in (Washington DC), but we still don't get the message.

It is just this: Fantastic misgovernment of the kind we have seen is not an accident, nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. The movement is friendly to industry not just by force of campaign contributions but by conviction; it believes in entrepreneurship not merely in commerce but in politics; and the inevitable results of its ascendance are, first, the capture of the state by business and, second, all that follows: incompetence, graft, and all the other wretched flotsam we've come to expect from Washington.

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more at:
http://tcfrank.com/books/the-wrecking-crew/
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/013090.php

[C_U_L8R]

1. Ayn Rand sucks

hahahahahahha