The Public is Always Right

Ron Paul taught me to trust Libertarians just as much as I trust everyone else with a party subscription. They certainly aren't immune to the occasional case of the crazies.

Over at Instapundit there's a poll asking whether or not congress will pass bail-out legislation this week. I think its pretty likely, and I'm not really crushed that they didn't pass the other one on Monday. Nobody was in love with it; the whips didn't even bother rounding up votes, everyone who had to make a decision was scared senseless and anyone who didn't was angry about the whole thing, somehow.

Conservatives didn't like the idea of mucking around with the free market that much. Democrats balked at giving the Treasury Secretary as much power as he wanted. The public, as could be expected, didn't see their interests represented because they are shortsighted, panicked, and it wasn't adequately explained to them just what the hell was at stake.

As far as the commenters over at that Instapundit poll, they pretty much spell out how basically everyone in the public feels about it: they didn't trust it, and won't trust the next one unless there's some serious bipartisan support, as well as a very clear description of why doing nothing is a bad idea. I'd probably start with "778-point drop and $1.2 trillion in equity lost". I'd follow on that for every "Wall Street Fat-Cat" that loses his or her job, three other supporting jobs are lost.

That can turn into a lot to have on your conscience for the sake of ideology.