It’s tough, being a Republican with a brain these days. Or even half of one, judging from the howls of pain being emitted by two of my less favorite people, John Podhoretz and Ross Douthat. John, in what Ross describes as a “dyspeptic assessment of the Republican field,” takes a particular swing at Rick Perry, claiming that “Perry’s refusal to pick and choose with his non-flat, optional ‘flat tax’ constitutes an act of egregious cynicism.” Ross, whose egregiosity can leave even JPod in the dust, counters that “In reality, the fact that Perry’s non-flat ‘flat’ tax plan is egregiously cynical is the only remotely reasonable thing about it — because in the present socioeconomic landscape, the ‘hard work’ of selling an actual flat tax would amount to a swift form of political suicide.”
I confess that Ross’s dyspeptic sarcasm leaves me a little confused. Does Ross think John is an idiot for thinking that ordinary Americans would vote for a tax plan that would raise their taxes while lowering those of the rich, or does Ross think that the “present socioeconomic landscape” is so fucked up that ordinary Americans are incapable of realizing that they ought to want to pay higher taxes so that overpaid, self-promoting schmucks brilliant thinkers like John Podhoretz and Ross Douthat could pay lower ones?
When he isn’t kicking Republican ass, Ross can usually be found writing paeans to Hell. Because there are so many people he wants to send there.
