Among the favorite mantras of conservatives is “With freedom comes responsibility.” They love to hurl it at liberals whenever they point to the disastrous failure of the welfare state. When liberals cry, “Please, judge us by our good intentions, not by the actual results of our policies,” conservatives respond, “No, good intentions mean nothing. What matters is the damage and destructiveness your policies have caused. You liberals must take personal responsibility for what you have wrought.”

That’s all fine and good, but there is at least one big problem here: The refusal of conservatives to apply their mantra to themselves — their refusal to take personal responsibility for the damage and destructiveness of their own policies.