A perspective on lunacy

Reading through the Auckland Public Transport Discussion Forum this morning, I found a post by "Andrew G" linking to an article, "The Threat to the Car" on a US conservative web site.

Author Terence P. Jeffrey describes the private car as an essential part of American liberty and equates public transport with the darkest excesses of freedom-negating socialism. A sample:

"I have no doubt that most Americans who love the freedom of movement they derive from owning and operating a car or truck have recognized efforts by various levels of government to induce them to stop, or limit, their driving and cajole or compel them to leave the free-market transportation system and submit to the socialist transportation system."

It's a hilarious read. Mr. Jeffrey has apparently never taken an airplane - or must own one. Imagine riding to your destination with people you did not choose to be with. Terrible.

"In a free-market transportation system, a person travels solely in the company of people with whom he has freely chosen to travel. In a socialist transportation system, a person may be compelled to travel in the company of people he does not know and who could even be a danger to him."

One would think all those other cars on the motorway hurtling by at 100kph or more were full of Mr. Jeffrey's best mates.

I wonder what people who can't afford to drive cars do? Mr. Jeffrey is silent on this.

One commenter in the forums was concerned Maurice Williamson see this article lest it become National Party transport policy should they win the coming election. Given Williamson's laissez-faire approach to his past portfolios (telecommunications, in particular), that may not be the joke it was intended to be. Balancing that is Williamson's advocacy of electronic toll roads, surely an example of Stalinist oppressive excess limiting freedom if ever there was one. This could go either way.

Mr. Jeffrey's article is one more sign that US conservatism has descended into a dark night of lunatic extremity from which it may not emerge for some time. To the extent Americans vote for ideas like this is - yet again - a measure of their collective intelligence as a nation. In recent years, they have been achieving lower scores than many had hoped.