Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday Question for Conservatives
Same questions as the question for liberals: who do you trust? (See the other item for a longer preface). In cases in which you have little information, whether it's about a candidate, an organization, a bill, or a nominee, who do you trust to know whether that person or group or whatever is safely conservative?
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ReplyDeleteConsidering the way the zeitgeist functions in the 21st century, I think one can only realistically answer "no one".
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin is a leader of the Tea Party movement. Sarah Palin borrowed a ton of money to build a sports arena as mayor of Wasilla; Sarah Palin socked it to the oil industry in a big ol' giveaway as governor.
In the abstract, a Tea Partier is aghast at the type of "bread and circuses" politician that was Mayor and Governor Palin. But does this mean that her support for the Tea Party is fraudulent?
Of course not. We have no way of knowing.
In a perfect world, where we could select from all 300 million Americans the person that will lead something like the Tea Party, Palin's political past would quickly disqualify her from such a role. But we can't choose from 300 million, so we take what we can get.
We have no choice, we take what we can get, so it is probably unwise to trust anyone in politics. Why would you? You didn't choose any of these people.
I would trust someone who realizes that the correct phrase is: "whom do you trust."
ReplyDeleteOn immigration numbersusa.com.
ReplyDeleteOn fiscal matters Bruce Bartlett.
I think the conservative motto is: Trust but verify.
ReplyDeleteAssuming you mean to lump us libertarians in with the conservatives, I'll answer here, though it's not entirely clear to me whether you mean "trust them to be honest" or "trust them to be accurate."
ReplyDelete1) I trust no politicians of any sort, ever. (What the hell kind of libertarian would?) I may anti-trust some politicians, though -- that is, I trust that whatever some people support -- Pat Buchanan or Ted Kennedy, to take people from different sides of the spectrum -- is wrong.
2) I trust very few media pundits; even nominally nonpartisan ones generally tend to turn out to root for one party or the other, when the chips are down.
3) I trust organizations like Cato and Reason, as well as more specific issue organizations like IJ or the ACLU or the NRA.