Barry Goldwater Is Spinning In His Grave

Reason's Matt Welch writes: I Would Just Like to Point out That John McCain Tonight Proposed Nationalizing All Bad Mortgages:

So, what other economic Hail Marys can we expect to see before Election Day? Guaranteed federal insurance for those who bet it all on red? A new green job from Barack Obama for every American who reduces his or her carbon footprint? McCain offers to nationalize Starbucks because "they just don't seem to be doing as well these days"?

And John McCain claims to be Barry Goldwater's heir how? Oh where, oh where have the real conservatives gone? Apparently, the Libertarians are the only limited-government advocates left standing.

So here's my fantasy: The Democrats crush the Republicans in the next several elections. The Republican Party goes down in flames. The Libertarian Party moves to the center enough to supplant the Republican Party in America's two-party system. The Republicans stick around but are the perpetual third party, drawing only a few percentage points of electoral support from the fundamentalist troglodytes who refuse to let go of their pre-modern religiously based morality. Then, the Libertarians and the Democrats could get back to the business of having serious arguments about how best to advance our collective interests. The political debate would always be about finding a compromise between those who advocate liberty and those who advocate equality. And all the provincial bigots would be left on the sidelines to scream themselves hoarse.

I'm skeptical this is going to happen. But I can hope. That would be the kind of change I would believe in.

Update:

This just in from a McCain campaign e-mail:

AMERICAN HOMEOWNERSHIP RESURGENCE PLAN

Tonight John McCain announced his plan to keep families in their homes, avoid foreclosures, save failing neighborhoods, stabilize the housing market and attack the roots of our financial crisis.

The McCain Resurgence Plan would purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes. By purchasing the existing, failing mortgages the McCain resurgence plan will eliminate uncertainty over defaults, support the value of mortgage-backed derivatives and alleviate risks that are freezing financial markets.

The McCain resurgence plan would be available to mortgage holders that:
Live in the home (primary residence only)
Can prove their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan (no falsifications and provided a down payment).

The new mortgage would be an FHA-guaranteed fixed-rate mortgage at terms manageable for the homeowner. The direct cost of this plan would be roughly $300 billion because the purchase of mortgages would relieve homeowners of "negative equity" in some homes.

Funds provided by Congress in the recent financial market stabilization bill can be used for this purpose; indeed by stabilizing mortgages it will likely be possible to avoid some purposes previously assumed needed in that bill. The plan could be implemented quickly as a result of the authorities provided in the stabilization bill, the recent housing bill, and the U.S. government's conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It may be necessary for Congress to raise the overall borrowing limit.

So, yes, now someone claiming to be a limited-government conservative is advocating yet another massive government intervention into the housing market. Because the government's past meddling in that area has had such great results. Too bad saying that the libertarians told you so doesn't suffice to fix the current mess.

Oh where, oh where have the fiscal conservatives gone?