Republicans Have Become the Party of No Ideas—and Democrats Have Become the Party of Bad Ideas

In a speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, Sen. Elizabeth Warren offered a contrast between her party and Republican presidential nominee. "Last week Donald Trump spoke for more than an hour on the biggest stage he's ever had," she said. "But other than talking about building a stupid wall, which will never get built, really, did you hear any actual ideas?"

It's hard to disagree with the idea that both Trump and the Republicans he represents have effectively abandoned governance. Last week's GOP convention was a nearly policy free zone in which Republicans all but bragged about becoming the party of no ideas.

Warren's speech, on the other hand, showed that Democrats have become the party of really bad economic policy ideas. The party has essentially committed to almost totally ignoring federal debt in favor of promoting an ever-expanding laundry list of benefits, programs, and subsidies, consequences be damned.

Warren didn't mention national debt or deficits at all in her speech last night. That seems frustratingly normal now, because over the past few years, Democrats have heavily downplayed the issue.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/07/26/republicans-have-become-the-party-of-no