Tuesday Open Thread [12.16.14]

One of the great ironies of our time is that the radical Republican hates the tyrannical Big Obama Government, yet wants that tyrannical Big Government to torture. James Antle III calls out the Republican hypocrites who apologize for torture:

[T]he case for limited government is weakened when those making it ignore or defend torture, testicle-crushing, and waterboarding, complaining only about big government when someone proposes spending taxpayer dollars to help people. And I say that as someone who has written a book arguing that seemingly benign and compassionate government spending can curtail individual freedom.

It is difficult to take someone seriously who thinks the imprisonment of human beings in cages and the behavior of government agents with guns have less impact on personal freedom than the capital-gains tax rate. That is one reason it is so easy for many to dismiss arguments against programs like Obamacare as being motivated purely by economic self-interest.

The truth is that there is no irony, no hypocrisy. The truth is, and this issue, and the issue of abortion, lays bare the lie that is the Republican Party today: Republicans do not hate big government at all. They love it. And they love it precisely because they are fascists. They want to control you and society. That is why they also support police officers who murder with no provocation. It is why they support torture. It is why they want to abolish reproductive choice, public education, public health, and social security. All of those things free the citizen and uplifts them. But that is not what the Republican Party wants.