GOP and Principles
November 1, 2010
Laurence: When Republicans talk about their “principles,” they mean little more than abstract ideas (e.g., “liberty,” “free market,” “private property”) they will continue to espouse, even as they vote against them. When Boehner says “we will not compromise our principles,” what he is really saying is “we will not stop giving empty lip service to the ideas that Boobus Republicanus likes to imagine we genuinely embrace.”
Butler Shaffer was Professor Emeritus at Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938, Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival, and Boundaries of Order. His latest book is The Wizards of Ozymandias.
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