Conservative reform done right

The right-o-sphere is buzzing about Rick Moran's latest liberal-pleasing sucker punch. (See Hot Air and R.S. McCain). That, I am sure, was Moran's goal. Bash his putative allies and get some hits for his website, which he admits, is suffering from "a dwindling number of blog readers."

I might comment on Moran later if I have time. Or maybe not. His latest blast is really just a sideshow, and we have more important issues to deal with.

The most important item to read today is Philip Klein's article in the American Spectator:

Wrestling with Capitalist Pigs

Klein is willing to look hard at the causes of the crisis and grapple with the tough question. "How do we defend free markets without whitewashing the sins of the greedy executives who helped creat this mess?"

RTWT. It is too important to excerpt.

I've touched on some of his points on this blog, but he does a masterful job of pulling most of the key points together in a coherent, logical presentation.

Stuff I'd like conservatives to think about:

1. Big business is not the natural ally of free-markets. Look closely at the actions of corporations and you will notice that they spend an inordinate amount of time insulating themselves from the rigors of market competition.

2. The typical business executive is a private sector bureaucrat not some Randian Super Hero. Love John Galt all you want, but do not confuse fiction with the reality as found in the executive suites of the Fortune 500.

3. For decades Big Business has been the willing handmaiden of Big Government. We cannot continue to treat free markets, capitalism, capitalists, and Wall Street as synonyms. The defense of free markets does not require us to defend every action of every private sector actor.

4. Most conservatives believe in deregulation. I know I do. But deregulation is not the same as lax enforcement. It is one thing to change the rules. It is something else entirely to pretend to have rules but to let some favored entities ignore them.

Bernie Maddoff was a crook. Why wasn't he caught?

Asking that question doesn't make me a communist.