Tom Frank Quote of the Day (noon)

If we contemplate this thing with the nihilistic eye of the conservative warrior, the answer to the problem of the state becomes obvious. Since there is no possible difference between modes of government, it doesn't matter whether the beast is 'big' or 'small'; all that matters is whose interest it serves. The object of the political war is not to shrink the state or shut it down; it is to capture the thing and run it for your constituents' benefit.

The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule dates this operation as far back as 1892, and the original stirrings of a genuinely liberal state. The first bureaucracy organized to protect the public from the rapaciousness of the new Robber Barons: the Interstate Commerce Commission. A railroad lawyer was asked: should we kill it? He answered in the negative: "The [better] part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it."

More to follow.

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