P.J. O'Rourke laments about how conservatives blew it. In the end though, I'm not exactly sure what he is trying to say. I guess it's that he wanted conservative government more than liberal government, but conservative politicians were too shitty at their jobs to ever make conservative government a reality--or at least a sustainable one.
The piece is mostly ornamented with cliched, metaphor shtick--as is most everything he writes--so don't expect to do much learnin' (liberals are tofu-eating, sandal-wearing, tree-hugging dimwits who don't know how the real world works, blah, blah, blah). But it makes me wonder if he's asked himself the very hard question of, "was I, maybe....wrong?"
Since 1959, under Republican Presidents, the US has, on average:
The piece is mostly ornamented with cliched, metaphor shtick--as is most everything he writes--so don't expect to do much learnin' (liberals are tofu-eating, sandal-wearing, tree-hugging dimwits who don't know how the real world works, blah, blah, blah). But it makes me wonder if he's asked himself the very hard question of, "was I, maybe....wrong?"
Since 1959, under Republican Presidents, the US has, on average:
- Higher deficits
- Higher national debt
- Higher federal spending
- Higher unemployment
Don't believe me? Look at the Economic Report to the President and Michael Kinsley's article on it.
The numbers are far from earth-shattering in their difference, and some could well argue that it is all a coincidence. But if one is prepared to make the coincidental argument, one better be prepared to say that Presidents don't matter for an economy and that Democratic presidents sure have a way of being lucky. And surely the numbers prove that Ds don't spend as much as the GOPs (we can afford our own tofu and chai lattes).
So why support these buffoons? Beats me--that's why I voted against them--but I suspect it can come down to cultural issues. Maybe you do want to deny gay people the right to marry and keep Terry Schiavo alive by federal governmental fiat and take away Habeus Corpus and track private citizen's phone calls and strike out on Utopian wars and mortgage your children's economic future by banging a tamborine and holding out a tin cup to China--all at the expense of your own income--just enough to support the present day GOP, the "real" America. But you don't, P.J., you don't.
You said it yourself:
Maybe you are just a dude, an Independent like me. And maybe, just maybe, you've been wrong for the last ten years or so. Possible?
The numbers are far from earth-shattering in their difference, and some could well argue that it is all a coincidence. But if one is prepared to make the coincidental argument, one better be prepared to say that Presidents don't matter for an economy and that Democratic presidents sure have a way of being lucky. And surely the numbers prove that Ds don't spend as much as the GOPs (we can afford our own tofu and chai lattes).
So why support these buffoons? Beats me--that's why I voted against them--but I suspect it can come down to cultural issues. Maybe you do want to deny gay people the right to marry and keep Terry Schiavo alive by federal governmental fiat and take away Habeus Corpus and track private citizen's phone calls and strike out on Utopian wars and mortgage your children's economic future by banging a tamborine and holding out a tin cup to China--all at the expense of your own income--just enough to support the present day GOP, the "real" America. But you don't, P.J., you don't.
You said it yourself:
And where would you rather eat? At a Vietnamese restaurant? Or in the Ayn Rand Café? Hey, waiter, are the burgers any good? Atlas shrugged.Socially, you are more with the Ds in wanting a more open, diverse society. Economically, most of America does better under the Ds. I assume you want rule of law and things like torture and secret imprisonment of people ended, given your professed love of liberty. So you are conservative why?
Maybe you are just a dude, an Independent like me. And maybe, just maybe, you've been wrong for the last ten years or so. Possible?
