I’m as intrigued by an unusual bit of contrarianism as the next guy, but Tyler Cowen seriously jumps the shark here:
Another example of misleading good vs. evil thinking stems from the budget. Many people believe:
3. “If the Republicans win, they will irresponsibly cut taxes and do nothing real to control spending.” You may have even seen this view in the blogosphere.
One response to this is 4. “We should ensure that the Republicans do not win and criticize them every chance possible.”
An alternative response is 5. “Sooner or later the Republicans will in fact win and I cannot prevent that. Right now the Democrats should spend less money, given the truth of #3. In this regard the Republicans, although evil, are in fact correct in asking the Democrats to spend less money, if only to counterbalance their own depravity.”
I do not see many people entertaining #5.
No, I suppose not. “I think we should rein in social spending in order to create some budget room for more tax cuts for the rich in 2017” really doesn’t seem like a very politically savvy suggestion.
Anyway, this is hardly something that we liberals haven’t thought about. Just the opposite, actually: liberals are very keenly aware of Republican efforts to wreck the budget in order to prevent Democrats from ever spending money on their own priorities. In fact, “keenly” understates things. So this time around we’ve quite consciously decided not to let this stand in our way. We’ll do our best to keep things like healthcare reform deficit neutral, and we’ll try to honor PAYGO rules, but beyond that we’re at least going to try to enact some liberal social policies. The days of scrimping on food because Dad is threatening to blow a wad in Vegas the first time we let him out of our sight are over.
And if America eventually elects Dad to the White House anyway even though he hasn’t yet cleaned up his act? Then America’s in big trouble. But at least America will have better healthcare.
