This reminds me of healthcare. When Romney adopts liberals’ goals –universal healthcare or saving dying industries — two things happen. One, the arguments of free market conservatives are undermined. (“Well RomneyCare was such a good idea, what’s wrong with HillaryCare?”) Republicans who disagree are then tagged as mean and backward looking, with progressive Romney thrown in our faces. Second, once you throw in the towel on the goals what follows is the adoption of liberal means to those ends — mandates, government bailouts, and government-industrial “cooperative committees.” This should tell his supporters and GOP voters something about his mindset and his willingness to hold out for unpopular but ultimately meritorious free market principles.
