Reason.com is the brain bug of the American Conservative movement.
Their articles are often reasonably well argued and they tend to avoid the lunatic extremes of the Tea Party. However, in their argument against Affordable Care Act they lay out a rather sad indictment of the American Conservative movement. Their argument is America should think small.The side that claims the badge of the American Patriot declares America unfit. America is Country that does not do big things.
More than anything, however, this rolling bureaucratic disaster and its fallout should serve as a check on expansive political ambitions and grand visions of social change.
That goes for politicians from both parties, and for projects both foreign and domestic; as Republicans learned in Iraq, simply willing something to happen, and throwing resources at the goal, is not the same as seeing it through.
But it also goes for voters, whose hope in governmentally driven change gives those politicians license to act. Americans do many big things well, but American government doesn’t. The best way to avoid future grand debacles is to agree that we won’t do them together.
America, the nation that placed a man on the moon, the nation that built the Hoover dam, the nation that was at the forefront of economic growth and invention is no longer a can do nation. No internet. No Teflon. No satellites. None of that. America as a Country can not do big things. To the brains of the American Conservative movement, the Country that won the cold war through heavy military Keynesian build up must now settle for small things. Ignore the BRIC Nations and forget moving forward.
America to Republicans used to be a Country that was the shining beacon on a hill. Now it must switch that light off and shy away from the big issues.
To Conservative America, the Country can not do what every other developed Country on Earth can do and deliver near universal health care (never mind care - insurance).
So much for the Right claiming to support American exceptionalism.
Sad.