The urban scholar Joel Kotkin has called this recession a blue-state “meltdown.” That overstates the case: The Deep South has been hit hard by unemployment, and some liberal regions are weathering the storm reasonably well. And clearly part of the blame for the current crisis rests with decisions made in George W. Bush’s Washington.Which is actually correct. And then in the very next paragraphs, the conclusion that Ross draws?
But in state capital after state capital, the downturn has highlighted the weaknesses of liberal governance — the zeal for unsustainable social spending, the preference for regulation over job creation, the heavy reliance for tax revenue on the volatile incomes of the upper upper class.So, there is no such thing as a "blue state meltdown" (an oversimplification) but of course liberalism has wrecked the states and Democrats have destroyed economies through corruption (which apparently is fine to say).
And, inevitably, the tendency toward political corruption. The Republicans have their mistresses, but the Democrats are dealing with a more serious array of scandals: the Blagojevich-Burris embarrassment in Illinois, Senator Christopher Dodd’s dubious mortgage dealings in Connecticut, the expansive graft case in New Jersey, and a slew of corruption investigations featuring Democratic congressmen.
You know, just like in heavily Democratic, liberal states like Alabama.
The possibility that conservative state governments
Only, that's failed badly too.
2 comments:
Texas is the example he uses of responsible government? Not in this lifetime. Rather ironic since that is the home of Tom Delay. Texas is actually beginning to trend toward the center, and the NE is ripe for a GOP comeback right after I win the Miss America pageant.
Good job of picking apart Douthat's stoopid.
I forgot to mention that lovely Texas has the second highest poverty rate in the country. Mississippi is first. Even after the downturn all those "blue states" are still richer than the "red states." Atrios is right: The stupid it burns!
Post a Comment