That last post about health care forces me to ask a couple of philosophical questions about Republicans.

It seems to be a given that Republicans devote inordinate amounts of time to policies which amount to tinkering with socialism in order to make it work.

Let's face it; that's what this Hillary health care triangulation strategy is. Republicans are so resigned to socialism, so resigned to big government welfare statism that they're in a race to embrace it.

When I see libertarians doing the same thing, I feel obligated to pose basic questions about what is going on, which is why I wrote the last post.

Now, I'm not setting myself up to be a a morally sanctimonious libertarian scold here. Far from it. My libertarianism sucks. It's the "flexible standard" style of libertarianism, which many purists would call dishonest if not corrupt. (I'm for the war, for border enforcement, and I have even uttered statements unsympathetic to gay same-sex marriage.)

So I understand the impulse to recognize reality.

But what I think is being forgotten is that recognizing political reality is one thing; cooperating to "make socialism work" is another thing entirely. Socialism does not go away. It only grows, and the host of permanent entitlements and vast bureaucracy grows along with it. Once the Republicans commit themselves to helping socialism, they not only abandon their birthright, they abandon the American birthright. Seeing respected libertarians chiming in makes me think that the American socialist welfare state is irreversible, and that to oppose it is a hopeless exercise in futility.

I think the Republicans ought to ask themselves what moral authority they can ever hope to achieve under such a scenario.

Like most forms of moral authority, socialist moral authority can be expected to adhere to those possessed of, well, traditional (that word!) socialist moral authority. Who might they be? Those who claim to oppose socialism but say they'll make it work? By what right should people claiming to oppose socialism be trusted to make it work?

Hmmmm....

Should I be assuming that Republicans are in fact still opposed to socialism?

(I guess I should just cling to the hope that libertarians still are.)