McGovern Becoming an Economic Conservative?

I don't know what's happened to the ultra-liberal George McGovern, but his column in the Wall Street Journal today sounds like it could have been written by an orthodox conservative.

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.

He's right. We're seeing more of this nanny-state mentality not only from Democrats, but a lot of Republicans lately, too.

In the subprime lending problem, some of that paternalism has helped cause the very problem we have. The government pushed lenders to be more "liberal" in their lending policies, taking chances on risky loans they might not have, otherwise. Now we have a lot of people who have bitten off more than they can chew with their home loans (along with their two new cars, the boat, the cable TV, etc.). Rather than blame the borrowers for financial irresponsibility, the nanny-staters want to slam the lenders.

McGovern also amazingly attacks the paternalism of the health care industry, though not as directly as I'd like. Still, he points out that rules which make it hard or impossible to find the best plan, often across state lines, is adding to the problem.

He even goes after those who want to over-regulate the payday lending market. Make no doubt about it, rates are high in this market. I know, because several years ago I dug myself a financial hole and relied on these loans to keep rolling over my debt till I could get a handle on it. But it was my decision to pay this high interest rate. No one forced me into it, and no one was threatening physical violence.

I don't know what's gotten into McGovern, but I welcome it. I guess it's better late than never to wake up and smell the coffee. He even seems to realize that in our societal quest to insulate everyone from their own stupidity, we end up retarding and quashing everyone's freedom.

He finishes his piece by summing up why conservatives, beyond protecting the innocent, promote maximum personal freedom and decision-making:

The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.

HT to Free Republic.