Why are conservatives opposed to government funding of art, music, public broadcasting and so forth?
It’s not really because of the dirty pictures. If my tax dollars are going to be spent by a nitwit in SoHo, I might as well get some smut out of it. The problem is that taxes are taken by force. Every time tax dollars are spent, you have to ask yourself the questions, What if my mother went to prison for tax evasion? What if she tried to escape? Would I let a prison guard shoot my mother over this item of federal spending? Would I kill my mom to be able to listen to Cokie Roberts? Where does that leave social programs? Don’t liberal social programs help some people? Sure. It would be impossible to throw that much money around without somebody managing to help himself to some of it. But go to the places that have had the largest number of liberal social programs, where the most social spending has been done. Go to the inner cities, Indian reservations and Appalachia. Then ask yourself, “Do these people look helped?” But what about Social Security?. Social Security has given a bunch of m
