One face of that problem is claiming that the "American left" (by which I understand anyone to the left of Genghis Khan) oppresses economic vitality with "confiscatory tax rates" when, in fact, taxes are at extraordinarily low levels, historically speaking, and we had greater wealth, growth and productivity under the higher Clinton-era tax rates.
The article states that socialist authoritarians oppress economic freedoms with confiscatory tax rates. Can you name one liberal democrat who has not sought to raise taxes on "the rich"? Can you name one liberal democrat who has not made that statement at least once when asked about how to solve economic problems?
Another face of that problem is the attempt by philosophical conservatives to present themselves as champions of liberty when their standard bearers, the Taliban side of the GOP coalition, wants the government to intrude into the most intimate aspects of citizens' lives to impose matters of individual conscience with the fiat of law.
That is the typical response of liberal minded thinkers. You think that freedom is only the ability to smoke a joint or to marry your brother.
The demonization of the Eurozone as a nest of socialist leeches is especially interesting, in light of the fact that Europe has grimly pursued the austerity measures advocated by American conservatives, while Obama's administration has pursued classic stimulative measures, albeit timid ones, given GOP obstruction.
I don't know if the populace of the eurozone is socialist. They simply have grown accustomed to be leeches of the government. Are you going to deny that the majority of the eurozone populace enjoys their social programs and would fight tooth and nail to even slightly trim a single one?
Yet the Eurozone is now facing 12% unemployment while the U.S. economy continues to improve by pretty much every measure.
This is supposed to contradict a point of the article in some way?
I am confident that conservatives recognize the strong possibility of another economic boom during Obama's second administration--a surging recovery that would have appeared in his first administration if the GOP hadn't put their party's interest ahead of the nation's.
This conservative recognizes no such thing unless one thing happens.... Obama is not allowed to do what he wants to, or is forced into accepting a few GOP initiatives. Most conservatives do not agree with your assessment of them either. What makes you think there would have been a surging recovery in his first term if obama got his way? He could have passed whatever we wanted to his first two years. There was absolutely nothing standing in his way since his party held the leads of power in both houses of congress and the presidency.
The GOP played a cut-throat game for all the marbles in the 2008-2012 term, and miscalculated badly.
What do you mean by this? You seem to be saying that preventing legislation that you believe is harmful to the country is somehow being a cut-throat.
In short, the most enormous problem conservatism faces is that it is demonstrably wrong on pretty much every count
Went wrong in what way? ...in what standard of measure?
American voters haven't been seduced by ponies of dependency
Not sure what that phrase means. The american voters have been indeed seduced into accepting whatever the media has to say about the obama administration and whatever the media has to say about republicans and conservative ideas in general.
they've (god stop this metaphor I can't) been repelled by the horses conservatism rode in on: oligarchical wealth and power, and theocratic control of private life.
That is what the media convince the american people that conservatism was all about. They obviously convinced you some time ago that was true. Either that or the people you surrounded yourself with convinced you of that.
On a side note, the guy writes like a college freshman penning diatribes for underground newspapers back in the 60s. Only the villains have changed.
How does a college freshman write as opposed to a college graduate, and how does what he writes qualify for that description?
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