"The Long Angle"

Wilkinson has a long, smart post on libertarianism, liberalism, and conservatism. I'm not so sure as Will seems to be that an attempt to boost demand right now through spending is misguided or that some of the public investments the Democrats are proposing aren't worth doing. I'm also hoping (perhaps quixotically) that the need for such short-term borrowing might open a space for long-term entitlement reform this year. But, like Will, I have no real respect for Republican posturing right now:

I understand it is now politically expedient for Republicans to oppose whatever Obama is trying to do. But, frankly, the recent performance of the Republicans in Congress has been pathetic, managing to do little more than fight to get a bit more for their constituencies and a bit less for the majority’s. I do not remember hearing a plausible, principled alternative powerfully articulated by the Congressional Republicans. Maybe that’s because the great success of the GOP over the last eight years has been to destroy the reputation of free markets and limited government by deploying its rhetoric and then doing the opposite. Partisan Republicans choke on the truth that the emerging shape of the Obama era is the aftermath of the GOP’s successful, if unwitting, campaign to destroy the political economy they proclaimed.

The recovery of that political economy - which will surely build on the errors of the next few years - will take time. And it will take a deeper process of self-criticism than many on the Republican right seem capable of.