The Paradox of Contemporary Populist Conservatism

The following is a paragraph from the book "First as Tragedy, then as Farce", a book about philosophy, politics, economy, and capitalism. This particular paragraph, which I've broken into several smaller paragraphs for easier reading, talks about how populist conservatives are voting themselves into economic ruin, something that I've noticed but never understood.

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Thomas Frank aptly described this paradox of contemporary populist conservatism in the US: the economic class opposition (poor farmers and blue-collar workers versus lawyers, bankers, and large companies) is transposed or re-coded onto the opposition of honest, hard-working Christian Americans versus the decadent liberals who drink lattes and drive foreign car, advocate abortion and homosexuality, and mock patriotic sacrifice and simple "provincial" ways of life, and so forth.

The enemy is thus perceived as the "liberal" elite who, through federal state intervention -- from school-busing to legislating that Darwinian theory and perverted sexual practices be taught in class -- want to undermine the authentic American way.

The conservatives' main economic demand is therefore to get rid of the strong state which taxes the population to finance its regulatory interventions; their minimal economic program is thus:"fewer taxes, fewer regulations."

From the standard perspective of the enlightened and rational pursuit of self-interest, the inconsistency of this ideological stance is obvious: the populist conservatives are literally voting themselves into economic ruin.

Less taxation and deregulation means more freedom for the big companies who are driving impoverished farmers out of business; less state intervention means less federal help for small businessmen and entrepreneurs.

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This book is published in 2009 that discusses current economic and financial crisis from a structural and philosophical perspective. I am only 20% into it and already enjoyed it enormously. You may want to check it out too.