David Boaz: The Left and Right As Mirror Images

[David Boaz is executive vice president of the Cato Institute.]

The country is polarized, we're told. Bush-haters versus Clinton-haters. Mel Gibson versus Michael Moore. Red states versus blue states. Liberals and conservatives read different books, watch different networks, go to different churches.

But liberals and conservatives have more in common than you might think.

Both believe in government magic. And they want you to believe in it too. They want you to believe the president can be Superman, Santa Claus and Mother Teresa all rolled into one and that he can cure poverty and racism, keep kids off drugs and keep families together. Magical thinking is cute among children. But adults should know that the world is complicated and that legislative actions often fail, or backfire, or have unintended consequences or disappear into bureaucratic sinkholes.

Both ignore history. Liberals look at the 20th century's grand experiment of capitalism versus socialism — the United States versus the Soviet Union, Western Europe versus Eastern Europe, China versus Hong Kong — and somehow conclude that what the U.S. needs today is more socialism. National health insurance, a more centralized educational system, government regulation for our most dynamic industries — in every case ignoring the historical triumph of competition and freedom. Conservatives think government can restore the world of the 1950s, ignoring the most basic lesson of history: Things change.

Both respond to special interests. Look at the Bush administration: an energy bill designed by energy companies, a steel tariff on imports for the steel industry, a Medicare drug entitlement that will shift costs from big business to the taxpayers, the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment for religious-right supporters. Meanwhile, liberal administrations never forget the trial lawyers, the feminists, the civil rights lawyers and the other groups that help them gain power.

Both involve the nation in unnecessary wars. Conservatives think the U.S. should send troops anywhere our vital interests are threatened, and they have a very expansive definition of our"vital interests." Liberals take a different tack: They like to send troops anywhere our interests are not threatened — it seems less greedy and Republican. That's why liberals get excited about sending U.S. troops to Somalia, Liberia and Bosnia....