If You Were Really Serious About Conservatism, You'd Impose Leftism!

James Taranto:

Markos Moulitsas, Material Girl

"The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict," President Bush said last night. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time." Markos "Kos" Moulitsas begs to differ:

I can't take anyone bellowing crap like "decisive ideological struggle of our time" seriously when they refuse to call for the sort of national sacrifice that a real "decisive ideological struggle of our time" would demand.

If Bush and his pals truly believe the fate of Western civilization hangs in the balance, they should show they mean it. Mobilize the country. Call for a draft. . . .

And yeah, of course they won't go anywhere near a draft. They don't believe in their war that much, enough to kill them electorally for a generation. But if the struggle is so dire and dark, why not do something as tame as repeal their precious tax cuts for the wealthy?

It's a common trope on the left: the measure of your devotion to a cause is the extent to which you are willing to expand governmental power in the name of fulfilling it. The question of whether a draft or tax increases would, as a practical matter, benefit the cause is treated as irrelevant; what's important is the symbolism of the grand gesture. It is analogous to evaluating a man's devotion to his wife or girlfriend solely by how much money he spends on her.