Conservatives are today’s Marxists

This comparison makes sense to me when every problem can be solved by applying a general failed ideology to it.

Conservatives now espouse ideas drawn from abstract principles with little regard to the realities of America's present or past. This is a tragedy, because conservatism has an important role to play in modernizing the U.S.

Consider the debates over the economy. The Republican prescription is to cut taxes and slash government spending — then things will bounce back. Now, I would like to see lower rates in the context of tax simplification and reform, but what is the evidence that tax cuts are the best path to revive the U.S. economy? Taxes — federal and state combined — as a percentage of GDP are at their lowest level since 1950. The U.S. is among the lowest taxed of the big industrial economies. So the case that America is grinding to a halt because of high taxation is not based on facts but is simply a theoretical assertion. The rich countries that are in the best shape right now, with strong growth and low unemployment, are ones like Germany and Denmark, neither one characterized by low taxes.

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When considering health care, for example, Republicans confidently assert that their ideas will lower costs, when we simply do not have much evidence for this. What we do know is that of the world's richest countries, the U.S. has by far the greatest involvement of free markets and the private sector in health care. It also consumes the largest share of GDP, with no significant gains in health on any measurable outcome. We need more market mechanisms to cut medical costs, but Republicans don't bother to study existing health care systems anywhere else in the world. They resemble the old Marxists, who refused to look around at actual experience. "I know it works in practice," the old saw goes, "but does it work in theory?"

Ex-conservative and current Flaming Liberal Fareed Zakaria

Your run of the mill conservative, tea party patriot and the like have been fed bullshit for a generation. Tax Cuts pay for themselves. Government is always bad. The death of freedom is just around the corner residing in the cubicle of a bureaucrat in Washington. There is a simple answer for every complex problem. The poor dumb bastards believe all this bullshit and if anyone is to blame it’s the Republican Party. It no longer serves the interests of its constituents.

Another thing wrong with the GOP is its reliance on conspiracy theory. How can it serve the interests of ordinary folks when this party promotes conspiracy theories on global warming, on where the President was born, on Death Panels, etc. The modern world is a complicated. The ordinary fella’ may not be able to understand the basics behind climate science or health care and understandably takes cues from trust party leaders. Parties should help ordinary folks understand how their interests fit into a complex world. They should not manipulate people into believing in conspiracies theories.

It is time to shut down the GOP. It is broken.