Another Glimpse Into Republican Economic "Thought"

The travails of Wall Street, and subsequent massive Federal bailout, that dominated the week's news cycle bring to mind a couple of thoughts:

1. "Taxation and regulation are counterproductive and immoral." That's the mantra that has been chanted at us by supply-siders for the last quarter-century-plus, and it has come to dominate the economic debate (to such extent as it exists) in our electoral politics. With it comes the explicit assertion that, if we just leave the ultra-wealthy to their own devices, it'll bring shared prosperity to us all.

The past week's events have quite clearly and effectively refuted that argument.

2. "Government isn't the solution, it's the problem." So they tell us... Except, apparently, when government can be manipulated into rescuing plutocrats from their own foibles, at the expense of the rest of us.

That's the dirty little secret of modern Movement Conservatism. Despite the rhetorical nobility of its supposed belief system, it is really just a well-organized and well-funded attempt to undo the egalitarian gains of the New Deal -- to return wealth solely into the hands of those who truly deserve it.

That deeply-held, laissez-faire conviction of Conservatism is readily abandoned when it is inconvenient, thus exposing the sad reality: Conservatives actually believe in nothing, other than their own right to hold power, both economic and political, over others.