| Frequently liberals will argue to us, "If you were truly conservative, you would" (fill in the blank: oppose tax cuts since they unbalance the budget, oppose reform of this or that entitlement program because doing so is too "radical," oppose this or that foreign intervention, oppose the Patriot Act because it fosters Big Government, support gay rights against an intrusive government, etc.). Now, my point here is not to discuss whether or not there is anything to such claims; usually there is not. Rather, it seems to me interesting that liberals use this ploy against conservatives, but conservatives rarely use it against liberals. Why is this so?
A liberal response might be that conservatives are much more inconsistent and hypocritical than liberals, but I don't buy that. A more plausible explanation is that liberalism today is so incoherent and lacking in true principles that it is impossible to say that any position is inconsistent with it. It's more evidence, in other words, that all the intellectual rigor is on the Right. |
Since when has hypocrisy been a sign of "intellectual rigor?" Isn't that precisely backwards?
Just two examples...
Conservatives claim to be for small government, but under a GOP controlled Congress and White House, the size of government has exploded. Government spending under Bush has in fact grown faster than it did under LBJ.
Conservatives also claim to be for balanced budgets. But under every Republican president since Reagan, all we've had are massive deficits.
That's "intellectual rigor?"
Meanwhile, liberals like myself also argue for balanced budgets. But unlike Republicans, we accomplish it. Clinton went so far as to give us massive surpluses that were on their way to paying down the debt previous Republican presidents had amassed.
How is that an example of "lacking principle?"
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