Selling off state assets at low prices to politically influential businesses isn't really liberal, in either the left-wing or "classical liberal" senses of the word. I'm not entirely sure how liquor-store privatisation aligns on the conservative map, either. Old-fashioned social conservatives may prefer restricted, state-controlled liquor sales. Economic conservatives would prefer to turn the liquor-store business over to private enterprise. Fiscal conservatives, faced with a choice between keeping the ABC stores or raising taxes to replace the lost revenue, may have a hard time deciding. Maybe that's one reason why the discussion of the issue in Virginia seems to be curiously fact-based: nobody can figure out how to treat it demagogically. Then again, I would've said the same thing about cap-and-trade before this year, too.
Stigmatizing and marginalizing conservatives is much easier than debating them. Cogent arguments about policy become unnecessary to advancing the Left’s political agenda if they can dismiss its opponents as racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.It’s a good post on the leftist tactics which I highly recommend, even while not agreeing with its every word.
He also offers this choice passage on certain critics of conservatives:
What is at the root of this game is the accuser’s moral authority to act as Grand Inquisitor. The accuser arrogates to himself the unquestionable righteousness to judge the accused, who is then expected to attempt to prove his innocence.Read the whole thing.
