Posted by David Bernstein:
I'm for Limited Government (But Only When the Other Side is in Power):
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1229009387
During the Bush years, we occasionally heard that liberals who had
long been skeptical of federalism and limited government were gaining
new appreciation for these concepts. My suspicion was that this "new
apprecitation" would last only as long as the Republicans controlled
the government. So, it's not surprising [1]to read this
:
Amanda Shanor, president of the [American Constituion] society's
chapter at Yale Law School, said many liberal students were
submitting their résumés to the transition team. After long
thinking that government was controlled by conservatives and must
be curbed, she said, the students "feel like government now can be
potentially a huge force for social justice."
Note to Yale liberal students, and others joining the Obama
Administration: any new power that you win for Obama will eventually
be used, and abused, by future Republican administrations.
In fairness, I should point out that conservatives are notorious for
talking a great limited government game while out of power, and, once
appointed to any position of governmental authority, spending every
waking moment trying to increase their fiefdom. Especially irksome are
conservatives who advocate limited government when in opposition,
become cabinet secretaries who lobby heavily to expand their
departments' budgets, and later spend their "retirement" on the
conservative rubber chicken circuit bemoaning "big government."
References
Visible links
1.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/us/politics/11network.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Hidden links:
2. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/1229009387.html
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
