Brad DeLong writes,

America’s best hope for sane technocratic governance required the elimination of the Republican Party from our political system as rapidly as possible.

DeLong’s dream of technocratic governance is some people’s nightmare. I think the solution is what in the widely-unread Unchecked and Unbalanced I call Virtual Federalism. That is, we allow people to choose their virtual state, regardless of where they live. My neighbor could choose sane technocratic governance. I could choose minimal government. My neighbor and I would need to have a common defense policy and a common foreign policy, just as in the original federalism. But for many policies, my neighbor and I could have different government. For example, my neighbor’s government can try to make a Medicare Ponzi scheme last. My government would instead limit government support to vouchers for the very poor and the very sick.

On a more sobering note, I do not think that DeLong’s rhetoric should be taken lightly. I think it gives you an idea of how heated things have gotten, on both sides. It is reminiscent of Stalin and the Kulaks or Hitler and the Jews. Virtual Federalism may be needed to avert that sort of outcome here.