Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Fatuousness of Libertarians.

The Fatuousness of Libertarians.

Matt Welch’s complaints about McCain not having a well thought out conception of the limitations of government while blithely giving the back of his hand to McCain’s commitments on confronting excess spending and entitlements in health care and retirements demonstrate the fatuousness of libertarianism. The one man in the country perhaps with the proven commitment to confronting the real problems we face because of bloated government it brings him no credit, barely a scoffing mention. True McCain may be the one national figure with the proven record of taking on these problems and doing so with conviction and at great cost to himself, but what does that matter compared to his lack of a philosophy? We have lots of people who can nicely articulate theories of why government should be smaller. If the contest were to be decided in the seminar rooms or research universities we would all soon agree on cutting these entitlement programs I am sure. The problem is and has been for some time finding a politician with the courage to tell that to the voters. Finally we have found one and the people that claim to make the limiting of government the bedrock concern don’t care. Forget deeds, they say, we want more clever words.

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