E-Mart Nails It
At ObWi:
The problem with the modern GOP is that it takes an absolutist position on the role of government in terms of providing services to the people: government is the problem, and never the solution. Bobby Jindal even went as far as to critique disaster prevention provisions in his rebuttal last night! The lesson from Katrina being, according to him, that we can’t expect the government to perform such functions.
Democrats, at least the modern variation thereof, do not take the inverse position, however: that government is always the solution in every context. Quite the opposite. The modern Democratic Party (especially since Clinton) crafts policies under the presumption that the private sector works best in most settings. The Dems are rather corporate friendly – with a healthy appreciation for free trade, tax cuts and other big money items.
This is a huge advantage: Because the Democrats aren’t tied to an absolutist ideology with respect to the public/private dichotomy, they can pick and choose which approaches work best in different contexts: private sector in most instances, public sector for health insurance, social security, education, environmental protection, disaster prevention, etc. The GOP, on the other hand, can’t even conceive of a situation – such as the provision of health insurance – in which free market incentives lead to less than ideal outcomes in terms of providing health care to individuals (insurance companies look to limit coverage and reimbursement to their customers because such expenditures impact the bottom line). Instead, we get the simplistic suggestions that the panacea known in the abstract as “the market” will somehow produce the ideal outcome.
Similarly, most Republicans (save the heretics) can’t appreciate the fact that – as Hilzoy pointed out – while pre-privatization of the failing banks may be a government solution, it’s one that is based on, and one that seeks to preserve, market principles. At least, more so than the other proposed government solution that the GOP has rallied behind: straight taxpayer subsidies.