So says James C. Roumell—founder and president of Roumell Asset Management LLC—in a post on the Huff Post politics blog. Best thing I’ve read today. Roumell, a self-described “committed private-sector loving guy who invests capital for a living,” likes the public sector and has no patience with the GOP’s nonsense about “small government.” Money quote
Government haters remind me of adolescents pumping their chests to proclaim that they don’t need mom and dad. And then Katrina, Sandy or Ebola hit and the most ardent detractors, and often their Republican Governors, come crawling to Uncle Sam asking for help. Or a malady strikes a family member and the erstwhile detractor supports a big government-funded research effort in that disease. Representative [Paul] Ryan wants to reduce government social spending but when his father unexpectedly died when he was 16, it was Uncle Sam showing up in the form of a social security survivor’s check that helped him pay for college. Was he one of Romney’s “takers” during this period?
And his conclusion
[T]he current Republican Party, hijacked by government haters, has boxed itself off from its more balanced history. Imagine a Republican Party animated by its 1958 Platform which said, “We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs–expansion of social security, broadened coverage in unemployment insurance, improved housing and better health protection for all our people.” Socialism? Government is a collective insurance policy from which we all draw wherein taxes are the annual premium. Yesterday’s Republicans didn’t argue that very simple point and yesterday’s Democrats didn’t shy away from defending that truth.
Great piece. Read the whole thing here.
ADDENDUM: Robert Kuttner has a fine essay in The American Prospect on “The libertarian delusion.” The lede: “The free-market fantasy stands discredited by events. The challenge now: redeeming effective and democratic government.” Kuttner’s article is part of a special report, “What the free market can’t do,” in TAP’s Winter 2015 issue.
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