A Mickey Kaus Democrat

The semi-famous blogger is running against Barbara Boxer.

RCP: Why are you constantly plagued with allegations by fellow liberals that you are a conservative?

Kaus: Because I like sniping at doctrines that I think have undermined the goals of liberalism. For example, unions have helped destroy the public schools in Los Angeles and throughout California. Public schools were once a great liberal achievement. Rich and poor people attended the same schools or at least they were in the same school system. When I grew up, I went to a rich public school but the idea of going to a private school was considered wacky. Now, because the public schools are so deteriorated, because you can't fire bad teachers, anybody who has any money tries to get out of them. And they go to private schools or they go to exclusive suburbs where they mingle only with other affluent people. So liberal support of unions have destroyed the liberal ideal of public education.

And liberal support of amnesty without border control undermines unskilled wages of the lowest earners in our society. There is some sort of money minimum that you need to have respect and if you can't earn a decent living just showing up and doing unskilled work - if work doesn't pay because you are competing against desperate immigrants from very very poor countries - then its hard to achieve the liberal ideal of social equality. The liberal position on immigration should be, we like immigrants but we have to get control of the borders.

I support him. But I don't understand why he thinks universal healthcare contributes to "social equality." To me, universal healthcare just seems expensive and unsustainable. Show me Medicaid and Medicare work and won't break the bank and then roll it out over the whole country. I fail to see the problem with that plan.