Why do newspapers insist on telling us that politicians act out of ideological motives? I would guess that they act from political motives -- they do things that win them support from interest groups that can deliver campaign contributions or votes. But the NYT tells us that the dispute over bailing out the banks who are losing their shirts on bad mortgage debt is "a classic ideological clash." I'm a bit at a loss here. I am not sure what ideology it is that says the government should give tens of billions of dollars to rich bankers who are too dumb to know how to run their business. In any case, the NYT claims the Democrats adhere to this ideology while the Republicans are opposed to it, interesting.
--Dean Baker
