Conservatives frequently like to depict themselves as hard-nosed realists, and liberals as living in a world of wishful thinking. This is often true. Sometimes, though, it’s conservatives who mistake fantasy for reality.
I’ve previously praised Rick Barber for his badassness and revolutionary rhetoric, but I’m afraid he might have jumped the shark with his latest commercial, in which he asks Abe Lincoln how one should call it when government taxes people to pay for other people’s healthcare. “Slavery!” is Honest Abe’s answer.
In one way, it’s good for Tea Partiers to think like this -- and they might be inspired to roll back much, much more than Obamacare. However, in this video (which I found while writing my last blog), Keith Olbermann and David Weigel rightly point out that Lincoln is one of the worst “Founders” to associate with such sentiments: he instituted the first income tax, not to mention a military draft (Objectors were shot!). Not all American history before Jimmy Carter was Morning in America.
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