Reaganites turn on the Beckites

Bruce Bartlett, economic adviser under Reagan and H.W. Bush, wrote the following today on his blog. (I agree with his sentiments, though I think that the Reaganites also have a lot to answer for in terms of where we are economically right now. The national debt started to balloon under their watch in the 80s, for example.  And Paul Craig Roberts, another Reaganite economist and Treasury official, is now writing for Counterpunch, the leftwing website, having seen the errors of his ways.)

In my own mind, I have the same political philosophy I've always had--basically libertarian but tempered by Burkean small-C conservatism. But I am no longer a member of the Republican Party and no longer consider myself part of the "conservative movement." That's not because I changed, but because I believe that they have. The Republican Party of today is not the party of Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan that I was once a member of; it stands for nothing except the pursuit of power as an end in itself, with no concern whatsoever for what is right for the country. In a recent interview with The Economist magazine, I characterized the Republicans as the greedy, sociopathic party. I stand by that....

 As far as the conservative movement is concerned, I think Russell Kirk and Bill Buckley would be absolutely aghast at the things it stands for today and the people that are acclaimed as its leaders. When clowns like Glenn Beck are its leaders and right-wing bigots pander to ignorant yahoos about a planned mosque in lower Manhattan, I want to be as far away from any such movement as I possibly can.

Anyway, I am happy to classify myself, politically, as an independent these days; nothing more, nothing less.