Sunday, November 04, 2012

DOUTHAT: CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THINK OF DEFICIT REDUCTION TARGETS

Ross Douthat mostly makes the pro-Romney, anti-Obama case you'd expect him to make in The New York Times today: President Obama, if reelected, will continue to lead us on the Western European socialist road to perdition, while Mitt Romney will give Americans the tough love they need. ("The conservative vision requires making structural changes to popular programs, and asking the middle class to accept further creative destruction in an age of insecurity," Douthat writes, and he means that as praise for "the conservative vision.")

But near the end of his column, Douthat gives us this critique of Obama:
He's the candidate of the Medicare status quo in a country facing an entitlement crunch, of government bailouts in an economy with a crony capitalism problem, and of contraceptive mandates in a society with a birth dearth.
Wait -- what was that last bit? Obama is the candidate "of contraceptive mandates in a society with a birth dearth"?

A few paragraphs above this, Douthat writes,
It's one thing for a young, fast-growing nation -- like the America of the 1960s -- to embrace a permanently larger public sector. It's quite another for a graying society with a stagnant economy and a sinking birthrate to do the same.
So what is his argument? That we should decrease the amount of contraception available to Americans so they'll be compelled to have more babies who will then grow up to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes? That we should replenish the coffers of these programs by making American women have unwanted children?

It's a plan, I guess, Ross. A sick plan, but a plan.

3 comments:

Victor said...

To tell the truth, I'm surprised that the Conservatives aren't for abolition of abortion and contraceptives for white people, and free abortion and contraceptives for minorities.

It's not the dearth of brown babies what scares the poop out of them - it's the dearth of precious lily-white ones.

And Ross, if there's going to be some 'creative destruction," why, oh why, can't it be on the UPPER CLASS, for once, you feckin' sycophantic twit?!?!?!

I think Russ suffers from dearth of intelligence and empathy.
No.
I KNOW that!

Hey, NY Times, want to know WHY I stopped buying your feckin' newspaper, even on Sundays?
You let Frank Rich go, and kept this feckin' nitwit!!!

Ten Bears said...

"Birth Derth" is another racist dog-whistle, misogynist in the expectation that white women are to be forced to spit out seven or eight fat little brain-dead white dogs to protect their precious fucking WASP "majority". Pure National Socialism. Pure Nazi.

No fear...

Roger said...

Contraceptive mandates sounds like something Mrs. Douthat insists upon.