Conservatives ARE Corruption

Great column by Thomas Frank in today's Times. He explains how reigning conservative ideology dismisses the entire concept of the public good and instead celebrates the circle of threats and payoffs that have put corporate interests in control of government.

Frank argues that the dejected feeling you may become used to only serves to perpetuate the problem. 

Conservatives are infinitely better positioned to capitalize on public disillusionment with the political system, regardless of who does the disillusioning. Indeed, the chorus has already started chanting that the real culprit in the current Beltway scandals is the corrupting influence of government, not conservative operatives or their noble doctrine. The problem with G.O.P. miscreants is simply that they've been in D.C. so long they've "gone native," to use a favorite phrase of the right; they are "becoming cozy with Beltway mores," in The Wall Street Journal's telling. If you don't like the corruption, you must do away with government.

 In other words, the free marketeers in possession of the country presently are wallowing in corruption and the wholesale sell-off of government operations not because it's the best system, but because they are interested in destroying the government they presently control. This is in keeping with the parallel, that evangelical Christians support Israel's war on Hezbollah not because they love the Jews, but because armageddon in the Middle East speeds the foretold return of Jesus.

• 106 Money & Politics
• 208 Regulation