Republicans Abandon Capitalism, Nationalize Economy?

So...the Democrats are "socialists," eh?  They're the ones who want to "tell you what to do with your money," eh?  Well, here's a reality check: that's EXACTLY what the Bush Administration is doing right now, whether it's necessary (to clean up their own mess) or not. But c'mon, can any honest, principled conservative out there seriously make the argument that this government takeover of the U.S. financial sector is consistent with their beloved, exalted concept of a "free market?"  Right, I didn't think so.

Note the key words in the headline above: "government forces" and "partial nationalization?"  Just curious, and perhaps I'll go back to my copy of "Atlas Shrugged" (or maybe Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments") on this one, but last I checked, being a conservative meant - at least theoretically - that you believed in the government staying OUT of peoples' lives and OUT of the economy. Certainly, a conservative would NEVER support "partial nationalization" of a huge swath of the nation's economy, right?  Certainly a conservative would NEVER use the government to "force" private sector companies to "accept" such a thing?

Well, guess what, the "conservatives" currently in power right now - Bush, Cheney, McCain, etc. - have done just that.  By their own standards, then, not to mention many McCain supporters' fevered rhetoric, it's their very own Republican Party that has gone "socialist."  Ah, irony (but are modern-day Republicans of the Jeff Frederick ilk capable of understanding that concept?).

Of course, none of us who have been following U.S. politics the past 30 years - since Ronald Reagan and his merry band of "supply siders" rode into town - should be surprised at this turn of events. As Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post this morning, intellectually the Republican Party "is a mess and a fraud."  Robinson continues:

The Republican Party said it believed in free and unfettered competition, but it picked winners and losers through a system of crony capitalism. All it takes to make my point is a name: Jack Abramoff.

Remember, this is also the party that has run up the largest budget deficits in history, under the "conservative" Ronald Reagan and even more so under the "conservative" George W. Bush.  This is the party that has advocated intrusions into our personal lives that undoubtedly have Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater (and William F. Buckley, Jr. and many others) spinning around in their graves. This is the party that has engaged in what it always said it hated - "nation building" - on a huge scale in Iraq. This is a party that has "picked winners and losers," as Eugene Robinson says, in direct violation of free market capitalist ideology (isn't the "invisible hand" supposed to take care of things?).

Given all this intellectual incoherence and betrayal of conservative philosophy, no wonder that today's Republican Party - John McCain, Sarah Palin, Jeff Frederick, Bobby Lee May - resort to the basest forms of character assassination, scare tactics, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, and even racism to try and get elected.  Sadly, this once great party has nothing else to offer. And, as Eugene Robinson writes:

"When a political party reaches the point of lurching incoherence, the most effective cure is a good, long spell in the wilderness. Americans should help Republicans out by sending them home to get their act together."

That's right, a loooong spell in the wilderness is what the Republican Party richly deserves at this point, both for its incompetence and also for its internal intellectual incoherence. How many years in the wilderness are needed to cure this party? I don't know, but perhaps we might start with the 28 years or so it's taken the Republican Party to drive us into the ditch? Or at least, how about the 14 years since Newt Gingrich and his brilliant "Contract ON America" stormed the nation's capital with promises of supply side and deregulatory glory that inevitably led to financial panic and, of course, headlines like the one above ("the government forces...partial nationalization"). Will 14 years, or even 28 years, in the wilderness be sufficient to cure the Republican Party of what ails it?  There's only one way to find out, and it begins on November 4th.

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