One cause of government growth is confusion, on behalf of pro-free-market people, of policies that free up the market and policies that subsidize Big Business. Many conservatives fall into the trap of thinking that if liberals hate Big Business or lobbyists, then Big Business and lobbyists must be good.
Yesterday we got a great example of this from conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.
Kevin Williamson of National Review wrote an excellent essay on Wall Street, and how the big banks use their political connections to make profits without adding value to society. Williamson also suggested that Wall Street’s generosity to the campaign of Mitt Romney ought to make us suspicious of Romney, because these Wall Street guys are neither economically free-market nor culturally conservative.
Williamson went on Hewitt’s show, and made the case very eloquently:
Hewitt, an unblinking Romney backer, tagged these Williamson arguments as “very anti-free market,” and “Bildebergerish.” Here are the two passages that I think capture Hewitt’s basic misconception about the relationship of finance, the government, and the market:
KW: I think we should ask ourselves what they’re hoping to get by supporting him, yes.
HH: And so, in doing that, you are telling Republicans, it’s sort of a Ron Paul critique, and I find it very anti-free market. And I’m actually kind of stunned that a conservative would find, would launch a polemic against finance. Finance is what makes the world…
And earlier in the show, this one:
So Williamson grounded his essay in specifics: campaign contributions, revolving-door bankers, bailouts…. Hewitt responds with an a-priori and anecdotal blanket statement: GOP and Wall Street go together — always have and always should.
I think Hewitt is trying to say that Republicans shouldn’t try to clamp down on the business of finance — on buying, selling, lending, borrowing, and securitizing. He’s right. But in defense of what he calls “pure finance,” Hewitt won’t allow any criticism of Wall Street as it really is — which is very impure. I run into this argument a lot — that I am giving fodder to the Left by pointing out the evils done in the name of capitalism. This is exactly the sort of cover that the bailout barons of Wall Street want, and which Williamson wrote of. And it’s one of the biggest enemies of free enterprise.
