The whole bogus concepts of “Social Security Reform,” “Tax Simplification,” the attacks on the UN’s tainted oil for food program, and so on down the line, use tactical failures of liberal institutions as a proxy for systemic failures. It allows conservatives, who are hostile to the entire liberal enterprise, to pose as “reformers,” while forcing progressives to defend the most egregious examples of their program as if they were typical of the entire ideology. You can hardly blame the Right for this. It’s an extremely effective tactic, largely because it is built around a kernel of truth at the center.