Calling All Readers

by digby

We have a project for you. (And it’s fun!)

From Rick Perlstein:

Conservatism is on the ropes; if my dialogue below with David Frum suggests anything, it’s that. So Bob Borosage, in the comments, makes a suggestion:

What we need is to catalog the 10 or 20 classic conservative “not sos”— the big lies or cons that have become central to the story they tell both to themselves and to the country—with the basic refutation. So that those of us who aren’t historians of the Nixon era can share in the same delightful moment of uh,uh,uh, dither that you produced in Frum.

So: let’s make this a community project. Any nominees?

Please click this link and leave your nominees for Rick to collect at The Big Con.

I have one: “Reagan proved lowering taxes raises revenues.”

The fact is that Reagan signed one of the largest tax increases in history and even then by the time Reagan left office, a combination of lower tax revenues and sharply higher spending for defense had created the biggest budget deficit in history. It was so big that his more “prudent” successor broke his promise to never raise taxes and signed a tax increase to close it — which helped cost him the election in 1992.

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