Who Cares About The Metro-Con?

John Derbyshire is a man I respect but his latest on NRO implies that the "metro-con and his guns'n'Bible country cousin" can't live together under Conservatism's big tent.

Nonsense.

That implies there is a difference but if the argument is framed correctly there is no reason why the urban conservative and the rural Conservative can't shake hands.

Conservatism isn't regionalism. Conservatism is small government, low taxes, and freedom. Who can argue with that except socialists, communists, and fascists?

Conservatism is the freedom to innovate whether it is a new planting technique or a new software program.

Let me give you an example.

My husband has a cousin who was an excellent Urologist for the NHS in the UK. She won an award which involved a lifetime yearly income to her for her work. She is that good.

But she no longer practices medicine because in the Nationalized Healthcare System of Britain she had to determine who had access to dialysis. She had to decide between the 18 year old and the 65 year old. And inevitably she had to defend her choice in court.

But why did she have to decide? Because under nationalized healthcare systems problems are not solved, they have more bureaucrats thrown at them. In the area of Britain this doctor lived in there was only one dialysis center serving tens of thousands.

I can think of three in my ten mile radius - two are independent private facilities. Without the option of private entrepreneurs filling a need, dialysis patients must wait for access to the machines.

Under nationalized healthcare, a dialysis patient who get bumped by someone younger or fitter well, that's just proper allocation of resources (aka rationing).

Under private healthcare, an independent entrepreneur can open a free-standing urology center and work with insurance companies to offer dialysis to just about anyone.

The avoidable life-and-death decisions my husband's cousin had to make thanks to government-run healthcare was so difficult she no longer practices urology. She teaches.

So Britain lost an award-winning physician and anyone over 65 who needs dialysis still faces a death sentence.

And that's why Conservatism must find the big tent. Because socialism is just that scary.