Virginia Postrel: the Republicans have given up their free-market beliefs

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

[Originally published on a weblog called “What Is Liberalism?”]

Virginia Postrel laments the death of the liberal element in the Republican party:

Big-spending Republicanism isn’t an alternative to social issues. It’s a complement–and one that (I hope) may eventually backfire. By jetisoning any pretense to free-market principles, the GOP is defining itself entirely as the party of the religious right. The subsidies to friends are simply business as usual for whatever party is in power, a tool for fundraising but not for defining party identity.

In the best of times, America has two liberal parties: the Republicans, who fight for the Adam Smith tradition of entreprenurialism, and the Democrats, who fight for Bentham-like social reforms based on social utility. In the worst of times, America has zero liberal parties: both the Republicans and the Democrats get taken over by their non-liberal factions.

Clearly, we are now at a transition point. The Republican party has been taken over by its non-liberal factions. The Democrats, who suffered a similar fate in the 1970s, now seem to be emerging into a period when liberal factions again have significant influence on party policy. Or, at least, that’s what I’d like to believe.

Post external references

  1. 1
    http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/001807.html
Source