LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HERE IT IS: THE CONSERVATIVE MIND

The American Spectator's Robert Stacy McCain has a long post today at his blog that attempts to explain why the proudly ignorant, narcissistic failed president George W. Bush is very, very different from the proudly ignorant, narcissistic right-wing heroine Sarah Palin.

I don't want to get into the details of McCain's argument (the short version is: Palin is a Genuine Conservative and George W. Bush never was). I just want to point out one phrase McCain uses while discussing No Child Left Behind as a betrayal of the True Conservative Faith: McCain refers to the

unconservative belief that informed NCLB -- that human beings are so many lumps of clay who can be magically transformed by the proper government interventions

Yes -- can you imagine? It was informed by the belief that children are actually moldable beings who can be changed through the efforts of government institutions known as "schools"! No, really, I'm serious! People who haven't seen the conservative Light actually believe this!

There it is, folks: the conservative mind. The flaws and merits of No Child Left Behind as it was actually designed and implemented are irrelevant; a true conservative should have rejected it because everything that derives from government that doesn't involve guns or tax cuts is trayf, fruit from a poison tree, schools most definitely included.

****

UPDATE: In a follow-up post, McCain explains at tedious length that his point was that children are moldable, just not infinitely moldable. That may have been what he meant; it isn't what he said. I was responding to his plain words, quoted above.