It’s always interesting to see Erick Erickson trying to exercise some self-criticism. Sometimes it’s very good, but I fear this time he made an error or two:
On our side, we’ve abandoned a century of sound economic thinking to scratch an itch from the 1950’s Democratic Party, which had been thoroughly infiltrated by socialists and communists. We have abandoned the careful and reasoned judgment of voices from history for the voices of the here and now, telling us the ideas we long held no longer matter because… reasons.
The mistake du jour? Believing his side’s propaganda. A central tenet of the Republicans has been a belief in the universal validity of the Laffer Curve, a theory that if you just remove the shackles of taxation and regulation, the increase in revenue will more than cover the drop in tax rates.
Hasn’t worked, not ever. Kansas tried it and watched it crash and burn – and then kicked its legislative advocates out of the legislature. This was an object lesson in what I consider an under-appreciated fact of American taxation, at its best: it’s an investment in improving the community where the private sector is unlikely to go, not a confiscatory mechanism used for punishment or other corrupt ends.
As a central tenet, this belief invalidates any claims to having sound economic thinking.
On other matters, I’m not an expert in the Democratic Party’s history, but I still rather doubt they were thoroughly infiltrated by socialists and communists; the Party would have collapsed rather than survive and thrive. I see this as a handwave to distract loyal readers from uncomfortable truths concerning the right’s allegiance to democracy.
The point? It’s an old one. Good conclusions are rarely reached using lies and omissions. Self-delusions such as this usually leads to, well, humiliation.
