The attitude of American conservatives towards government can be summed up in two words: it sucks! It can’t do anything right. It favors the weak and unfortunate over the strong and productive, and it takes away your money and freedom for all the wrong reasons. It can’t even do things that everyone wants properly. Better to dismantle it and give all of the money and power to rich businessmen who can get things done; then watch America soar!
The problem is that some problems simply refuse to be solved by rugged individuals. Then what do you do, if you’re a conservative? Here’s the menu:
- PRETEND THE PROBLEM DOESN’T EXIST: The classic example of this is climate change, of course, but others include the rise of China (it’s about to implode, because, logically, it has no right to exist) and the pandemic (just ignore it and get on with your life).
- CHANGE THE SUBJECT: Who cares about the pandemic? The real problem is Mr. Potato Head!
- IF THE FIRST TWO FAIL, ACCEPT THE LOSS OF POWER TEMPORARILY AND DO YOUR BEST TO SABOTAGE THE DEMOCRATS’ RESPONSE: This was the GOP’s response to the Great Recession.
As a philosophy of government, this leaves something to be desired.