The current conservative position on most of those things seems to be that they’re not important problems. Indeed, a lot of conservative anger at Bush has less to do with his ham-fisted attempts to solve them with poorly-crafted, pork-larded and ill-conceived legislation, and more to do with his attempts to solve them at all. In the minds of hard-core corporate-Right libertarian fanatics, there is no such thing as the public good, and any attempt to solve public problems through collective investment is considered socialism.

That position is, of course, insane and contrary to the experience of every American outside the top 5% income bracket. Moreover, coming up with good solutions to public problems doesn’t just benefit the people most directly affected by the problems – it benefits everyone. Good infrastructure has a multiplier effect on economic growth. So does R&D, so does education, and so do programs that spread risk widely instead of concentrating it.

And yet, I never hear any Democrat make an affirmative case for these things as good investments that yield a social return. Instead, it always sounds like politicians protecting special-interest constituencies or pet projects. In the post CWA era, only the private sector invests – government spends, as if that money just disappears into the pockets of the less fortunate and doesn’t do jack for the rest of society. Sorry, that’s just bad messaging, and it promotes a distorted and incomplete view of the policy.