tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6034478.post2530613529422657658..comments2024-03-28T22:28:33.411-04:00Comments on Doug Ross @ Journal: Rand Paul Scares the Bejeezus Out of the GOP EstablishmentUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6034478.post-77639474817771648412015-04-11T05:28:34.890-04:002015-04-11T05:28:34.890-04:00Freedom has always been an attractive platform. Th...Freedom has always been an attractive platform. The great problem with selling it <i>electorally</i> is the special-interest dynamic: the prospect of losing one’s special subsidy, privilege, or exemption tends to weigh much heavier in the electorate’s decision making.<br /><br />Here in New York the problems include subsidies for dairy farmers. Tell a dairy farmer that you favor the elimination of federal subsidies and his fear is that he’ll lose his, <i>but no one else will</i> -- in other words, that he’ll be paying for subsidies for others but receiving nothing himself.<br /><br />Freedom’s electoral “potential well” is steep precisely because each voter fears that everyone else has more lobbying clout than he does. Russell Baker, a liberal, wrote about this forty years ago in the context of the income tax. Should it be simpler? Sure – but don’t take away <i>my</i> deductions! And thus be it ever, where formerly free men shall stand.<br />Francis W. Porrettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6034478.post-19427019504649663562015-04-11T01:59:41.686-04:002015-04-11T01:59:41.686-04:00Jeb Bush scares me. Paul scares me more, not bec...Jeb Bush scares me. Paul scares me more, not because he isn't better than Bush but because he asires to be Bush.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com