Krugman: The Conservative Onion
The Conservative Onion
Mike Konczal and Jonathan Chait both have good pieces on You didnt build that, the Obama statement that, deliberately misinterpreted, has dominated right-wing discourse these past few days. Go read. But I think both of them miss a couple of tricks.
The first is that both in effect shrug their shoulders over the fact that for several days running the central theme of the Romney campaign has rested on a complete lie. I understand; going on about the dishonesty can get boring. But we should step back often to look at this remarkable spectacle. I really dont think theres been anything like this in American political history: a presidential campaign, with a pretty good chance of winning, that is based entirely on cynical lies about what the sitting president has said. No, Obama hasnt apologized for America; no, he hasnt denigrated achievement. Yet take away those claims, and theres nothing left in Romneys rhetoric.
The other thing that I think needs clarification is that its wrong to think of conservatives as having a single argument for their preferred policies. What they offer instead is more like an onion, with layers inside layers; every time you strip away one excuse theres another one inside.
Thus someone like Paul Ryan starts by claiming to be a deficit hawk. Push him really hard, however, on why in that case he advocates big tax cuts, and hell shift to arguing that big government (as opposed to not-paid-for government) is the real problem. (Thats also what happened in my UK debate on Newsnight.) But if you push hard on that, it turns out that theres yet another layer: the claim that things like taxing the rich to help pay for social insurance are immoral, because people have a right to keep the wealth they created which is why suggesting that no plutocrat is an island is heresy.
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/the-conservative-onion/