Conservative Silliness Report

So this morning I conducted one of my periodic trolls of the major conservative blogs. As usual I discovered some really cute posts, displaying a remarkable blend of political naivete and substantive incompetence.

Captain's Quarter's supports John McCain's ludicrous idea that we should isolate Russia. His argument is that because Putin isn't much of a democrat and has failed to support U.S. foreign policy, we should ditch the next G-8 meeting. This proposition indicates how wrong-headed and incoherent right-wing foreign policy really is. How do you isolate somebody by not attending an international meeting? Doesn't that isolate yourself? Are we going to shun every nation that doesn't agree with us - because in that case we are reduced to a coalition of one. And finally, I thought the 2 great conservative bugaboos were Islamic fundamentalism and China. Seriously, how many enemies would you like? Russia is critical in the attempt to isolate either of these forces. The entire strategy of isolation is to identify one hostile power as the exclusive focus of one's diplomatic efforts. Trying to isolate more than one power leads to those multiple objects forming a coalition - hence no more isolation, but instead a hostile alliance. My God these people don't know ANYTHING about foreign policy.

Next, Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy argues that people unhappy with a state's policies should "vote with their feet" - in other words, move someplace else with better policies. His logic is that since voting apparently doesn't make all that much difference (!), it is more effective to impoverish that community by leaving. There is a screwy sort of sense to Somin's argument, if one has fetishized free market doctrine. But it also reveals a total lack of civic responsibility or commitment. If your marriage isn't going well, do you just get a divorce? If your child is making you angry, do you kick them onto the street? If your job isn't perfect, do you just quit? Where is the sense of responsibility? Unless a community is fatally compromised in some way, your obligation is to get involved and try to make things better - not wash your hands and call it someone's else's problem. Ugh, these people make me sick.

Finally, the Free Republic links to an LA Times op-ed in which the author attempts to exploit frustration over taxes (it is April, after all) to push the idea that we dump income and payroll taxes in favor of a national sales tax. Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. I'm not going to bother getting into the poor public policy this represents ( ok I will just summarize - massive inflation, lack of progressivity, the inevitable black market it would create, loading a giant administrative burden on small businesses, etc.). Let's just say that this idea is politically radioactive. I DARE Republicans to push this issue. A candidate in the 2004 S.C. Senate race almost lost the election on this issue - we're talking about a heavily Republican state in a Republican year. Can you imagine what would happen to the Republican party if they adopted the sales tax as part of their platform. The Democrat campaigns would run themselves!

How in the world did these lunatics ever get in charge?