The Financial Times’ Anna Fifield Labels Lower Taxes and Free Markets "Rightwing"

If I drank tea I would have almost choked on it.  I opened up my paper and read this headline: “US rightwing activists curb efforts to cut CO2 emissions.”

Goodness what could she be going off on now?  What kind of “proof” does she see for using the term “Rightwing”?  Well… here it is hold on to your socks:

AFP (Americans for Prosperity) aims “to build troops, to build activism, to get Americans to become active and to work for our freedoms”, says Tim Phillips, the mercurial president of AFP.

“Our goal is to fight for basic free-market principles – limited government, lower taxation, the ability of entrepreneurs to go out and create. It’s to build grassroots,” Mr Phillips told the Financial Times.

Wow… so ideas such as “basic free-market principles – limited government, lower taxation, the ability of entrepreneurs to go out and create” are all of the sudden “Rightwing” ideas?  Since when?  Compared to Marx, maybe.

I’ve come to expect better from the FT.  Perhaps that trust is misplaced?

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