A reader writes:
You wrote:
"So I've shifted my own position to what might be called the left, but which, from a fiscal perspective, is actually on the right"
With that one sentence you lay bare what most bugs me about today's politics. Back in the old days I would consider myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. Today, well, I'm still big on civil liberties, a social liberal, but what is a fiscal conservative? Eisenhower refused to lower taxes (top marginal tax rate of 91%) if it would add to the deficit. Now THAT was a fiscal conservative.
These days a "fiscal conservative" is someone who wants to cure the world's ills using tax cuts for millionaires. Look at the rationale Bush used to sell us the tax cuts and compare it to the reasons Republicans insist on keeping the Bush tax cuts. What do you see? The only coherent policy I can detect is, "Ugh, tax cuts good."
Over several decades Republicans have turned the world "liberal" into an insult. Yet Republicans still call themselves conservatives and nobody points out that if they are conservatives, then the word "conservative" does not mean what it used to mean. Please talk about this more. As a former "conservative" I consider the subject highly important.
I actually wrote a book about it. But I'll keep it front and center.
The Dish 