Posted by
Andrews on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 7:15:50 PM
I was watching network news and I finally heard something from one of the big three contenders with which I agreed Not surprisingly, it was John McCain who made the statement. Well, it was a surprising sentiment coming from McCain, but it is not surprising that it came form McCain rather than Clinton or Obama.
So, what surprised me?
In discussing the bank bailout proposals, McCain said that he did not think it was the role of government to bail out either corporations or borrowers.
It is a common sense statement, a very simple free market sentiment. The very fact that such a sensible sentiment comes as a surprise says something about the times in which we live. But after over a decade of Clintonian triangulation and Bush compassionate conservatism, we are all used to government
ruling from the middle, so such simple conservative principles seem unusual. In fact, as the center has slowly started to drift a bit to the left (though not very strongly or very fast)*, reversing the rightward drift of the past two decades, even the center is getting ever more comfortable with big government and intrusive laws.
So, while it is sad that I am surprised by the presumptive Republican nominee making a free market statement, I will still take what I can get. If I am going to get a candidate who is only 10% free market, at least he will bring that 10% to the office of president. So, rather than dismissing him for the other 90%, I will try to reinforce good behavior.
So, here is my attempt at positive reinforcement, just on the remote chance that Senator McCain drops by to see what I think:
Way to go Senator McCain! Let's hear more of that common sense!
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* I am not entirely convinced there is a real leftward drift. There is definitely a dissatisfaction with the Bush administration, and as we get wealthier we seem to be more tolerant of big, expensive government, but that is all the leftward drift I see. And, at the same time, the explosion of talk radio still continues, Fox news (not completely right, but right of the MSM) continues to flourish, and in 2006 a number of Democrats had to run right to win seats. So it could be argued that we are not so much drifting left as the rightward drift has slowed a bit and dissatisfaction with Bush has favored the Democrats at the moment. I suppose I will have to wait for another election cycle before I can say for certain whether or not there is a drift to the left, right, or neither.