[LapsangGuzzler]

> how could we really determine whether a tax-bashing neoconservative actively protects labyrinthine tax practices in order to justify adjacent political ends?

We rarely have the ability to truly determine a politician’s motives in a concrete and objective way because many of the decisions they make are not transparent due to lobbying and other forms of influence.

Fundamentally, the American right argues consistently that the government does not represent the interests of the people and actively works to render the government ineffective.

Whether they intentionally use taxation as a means to achieve political gains or not, it’s pretty undeniable that taxation causes resentment when the government appears to be so ineffective. Ultimately, you’re trying to determine if this is intentional or not, which doesn’t make that much of a difference.

As Jon Stewart used to ask on his show when trying to assess the motivations of conservatives: are they stupid or evil? Which is just a simpler way of asking: are they being intentional about this or not?