Extreme In The Beltway
[C]razy, kooky, extreme actions are perpetrated by establishment centrists far more often than by marginalized libertarians. -Conor Friedersdorf
Forced to name the “craziest” policy favored by American politicians, I’d say the multibillion-dollar war on drugs, which no one thinks is winnable. Asked about the most “extreme,” I’d cite the invasion of Iraq, a war of choice that has cost many billions of dollars and countless innocent lives. The “kookiest” policy is arguably farm subsidies for corn, sugar, and tobacco—products that people ought to consume less, not more.
Friedersdorf is discussing the mindlessness of the Beltway, with its acceptance of the views of Very Serious People as non-kooky while pretending that Rand Paul's views are nuts. (To be clear, Paul's views are indeed nuts, imo. But they also are, for the most part, the views of the mainstream Republican Party.)
Perhaps the kookiest view pressed by the Very Serious People of the Beltway is the idea that we need to cut government spending in the midst of a jobs crisis and a stagnant economy on the precipice of a second recession dip. Meteor Blades explains:
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