Alan Simpson on “Western Conservatism”

In the Michelle-Bachmann-I’ll-eat-your-brains-stare issue of Newsweek (8/15), there’s a great interview with Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming:

You and Cheney represent an old tradition of Western conservatism.  What happened to those views?

I say clearly, abortion is a terrible, terrible thing, but it’s a deeply intimate and personal decision, and I don’t think men legislators should even vote on it.  Now, that takes you immediately from a conservative to a commie.  Now I also think that we all have someone we love who’s gay or lesbian.  There should be no special prejudices, no special penalties, no special privileges.  And so that’ll knock you into the commie box, too.

One would like to think that Simpson is speaking in hyperbole, but it’s the sad truth of the current state of “conservative” politics.