These are Alice in Wonderland times, where limited-government conservatives often defend big-government policies, big-government progressives regularly support deregulation and everyone else is left scratching their heads. "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense," said Alice in the 1951 Disney version of the story.
Everything in this world does seem nonsensical, especially as we consider the issue of land-use regulation and California's efforts (led by progressives) to jump-start housing construction by—yes, you heard this right—reducing the role of government in dictating what we can do with our property. Meanwhile, many conservatives have dug in their heels as they defend ham-fisted progressive-era rules that are anathema to our freedoms. It's curiouser and curiouser.
These conservatives act as if the founders would approve of a system where bureaucrats determine the proper use of every tract in their communities and dictate what owners can do with their land down to the tiniest detail. And where owners must, with tail between their legs, lobby their elected officials for discretionary approval of any building project. They act as if one's right to use government to control what other people do nearby is in the Constitution up there with the Second Amendment.
