“The battle for liberty begins anew this morning.”

Wall Street Journal editorial, Nov. 7, 2012

It’s been a month or so now since the the Romney-Ryan-(Ayn) Rand ticket’s defeat. Ultimately, the Republicans were brought down by the moral Taliban, the Tea Party, and the plutocrats–the ranks of their party most out of touch with a changing America.

Since election night, undaunted and unchastened as ever, of course, the Wall Street Journal’s editorials have been doubling down on a few key themes left over, oh, let’s say, from the Reagan years: class warfare, ending all taxes if possible, unfettered free markets, and the inherent evils of government. Money quotations:

The great mistake of Mr. Obama’s first term was putting his social and political agenda above nurturing a faster economic growth. ( “Obama’s Real Fiscal Problem,” Nov. 30)

Mr. Obama has humiliated House Republicans and punished the affluent for the sheer joy of it. (“The Hard Fiscal Facts”, Nov. 11)

Imagine the gusher of revenue the feds could get if government got out of the way and let the economy grow faster. (“The Hard Fiscal Facts”, Nov. 11)

In this era when envy trumps growth, the government is raising taxes on thrift, investment and risk-taking in the name of fairness and to finance more government spending. No one should be surprised when there are fewer dividends and capital gains to tax. (“The Great 2012 Cashout”, Nov. 28)

“American prosperity is best served by letting business exploit as many opportunities as possible…” (“Energy Economics In One Lesson”, Dec. 6)

To be fair, there are a few more contemporary obsessions: fracking, school choice (“the great civil rights issue of our era”), teachers’ unions (“the Evil Empire”), and, of course, Obamacare.

One of the best Obamacare editorials (“Hope and Exchange,” Nov. 27) talked about Obamacare as the “re-engineering” of the health care system,” being “rammed” down the throats of the throats of Republicans. It especially extols Utah’s medical insurance exchange, organized around the trifecta of Republican dogma: defined contribution, consumer choice, and free markets. In other words, coverage caps, the end of all state insurance regulation, and no cost controls whatsoever.

The more these guys change, the more they stay the same.