One needn't parse Bobby Jindal's comments on volcano monitoring funds in the stimulus to recognize that opposition to public goods is now one of the fundamental tenets of modern conservatism. As Paul Krugman writes, and as I pointed out yesterday, Jindal implied as much earlier in his speech when he suggested that the lesson of Hurricane Katrina was that people can't count on their government to rescue them from natural disasters; the idea being that this is just another one of those things government shouldn't be doing because it's simply not good at it.
This isn't exactly new though, during the campaign the GOP became incensed over the process of funding public goods--namely, progressive income taxes--and labeling them "socialism". Obviously if that's the case America has been a socialist country for decades. I actually don't think that there's a coherent political philosophy that has developed on the right in opposition to public goods either. Rather they just oppose anything Democrats support, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.
-- A. Serwer
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