Classical Liberalism

From the Milton Friedman school of Classic Liberalism comes this telling quote from Grace-Marie Turner at NRO that parrots the press consensus over how a Supreme Court Obamacare victory will be achieved:

If the mandate is declared unconstitutional, it will most likely be a 5–4 decision. If it is upheld, other justices may join the majority for a 6–3 or even a 7–2 decision.

This describes exactly what Friedman said: that conservatives, especially those defined as classical liberals, are inherently more receptive to change vis-à-vis reasoned debate than liberals as we know them today. What's pathetic is the corollary, not just that modern liberals are averse to debate, but that their convictions run so deep, no one expects any debate from them in the first place.

You don't hear demands for the Clinton-Obama contingent of the Supreme Court to change its position or to be open to the arguments. It's Paul Krugman at the Supreme Court: there's no room for debate so we're not even going to listen to your side of the argument. The only expectation of Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan is that they show up and pretend to listen. By now it's surprising they're willing to go through the motions of a hearing at all. Who among us doesn't expect these four justices to do anything other than phone it in ahead of time?