Fantastic misgovernment is not an accident, nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. This movement is friendly to industry not just by force of campaign contributions but by conviction; it believes in entrepreneurship not merely in commerce but in politics; and the inevitable result of its ascendance are, first, the capture of the state by business and, second, what follows from that: incompetence, graft and all the other wretched flotsam we've come to expect from Washington.
- Thomas Frank, in "The Wrecking Crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing", an essay in Harper's, Vol. 317, No. 1899, August 2008, p. 35-36. (adapted from an upcoming book)
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