What happened to TRUE conservatism?
I consider myself a conservative, but I feel like mainstream conservatives have departed from true conservative ideals and should not call themselves conservative. To be honest, I think many conservatives today are hypocritical because they claim to advocate fiscal responsibility and condemn reckless spending and then they turn around and spend trillions of dollars waging a gratuitous war in Iraq and imprisoning otherwise innocent people just for smoking marijuana. Seriously, how are the war in Iraq and the war on drugs fiscally conservative when they both put a major strain on our economy? The war on drugs isn’t a moral issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s not worth it to keep marijuana illegal because it’s far too expensive and the economy has to come first. And I understand that defense spending should take precedence over any other kind of government spending because it’s the only kind of spending that has a constitutional mandate. But, “provide for the common defense” is NOT a license for nation building and what we’re doing in Iraq IS nation building. Even we did have evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMDs or had anything to do with 9/11, which we didn’t, imposing a democracy on a country that has never had one before and isn’t ready for it would NOT be the answer. The answer would be to remove Hussein from power, confiscate the weapons, and leave. “Provide for the common defense” also DOES NOT mean that we should have military bases in every country in the world. It’s simply ridiculous that most Republicans today won’t even consider closing our military bases all over Europe and Asia because those are fully civilized continents that are perfectly capable of protecting themselves and they don’t need our help. There’s an immense difference between having a strong national defense and trying to rule the world. What happened to the TRUE conservatives who claimed to support fiscal restraint and actually MEANT it?
-It died with Reagan… .. .
Amen! Ron Paul.
Real conservatism is alive and well in the state house of Texas where more jobs have been created since 2008 than the rest of USA combined.
The FOX NEWS happened to TRUE conservatism.
When Goldwater and Reagan passed on, so did TRUE conservatism
they got pushed out by “Progressives”; we need to start pushing back harder
Old school conservatives are pretty much closer to libertarians right now.
Unfortunately fox news has created a swarm of neocon idiots that make up the vast majority of cons right now.
They became Libertarians
True conservatism died with Barry Goldwater.
Karl Rove put the final nail in the coffin of the GOP as a principled party of small government, economic opportunity, and personal responsibility.
It never died. Your policies just fail. Were not in the 80’s anymore.
After Reading a few words of Yours, I knew it was dribble. Cannot answer a lie.
But I do admire Your liberalism, wonderful
It is on display in the current debt ceiling negotiations.
Karl Rove and George W. Bush put it on life-support.
Palin : A true conservative: “She knows when to stand up and doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down”
Reagan, Neocons, FOX, Limbaugh, etc.
They think you must be some kind of pansy not to want an enormous military all over the world. That is pretty ironic since they have the need to shell out basically as much as the rest of the world combined so they can fell all safe and warm. Then there is the special interest industrial complex that comes along with it making billions telling the soft headed that they have to have enough money tied up in military to invade the Orion nebula to be a man.
It ended when the word was used to mean any old Republican.
And then it was buried when the right wing took over the Republicans with the advent of the moral majority, and the fundamentalists.
Goldwater looks like a liberal next to those people, Reagan a RINO.
And regular Republicans are leaving to become independents.
Those people are scary, to the entire rest of the population.
It died when you guys pretended that GWB was a conservative and that he was bright
Bush killed it
I’ll tell ya what happened.
Rush Limbaugh made the phrase popular.
Then everyone started competing to claim the title of the “real conservative”
This caused divisions in the GOP… so you ended up with what you got now.
Two MAJOR splits, and each of THOSE is split into half a dozen factions.
And that doesn’t even count the half a dozen others that call themselves Independent or Libertarian.
Then there are the churhies that say they are the real deal.
So you have twenty some groups, all claiming to be the “real conservatives”.
Thank Limbaugh next time you see him.
Barry Goldwater pretty much ended conservatism when he (correctly) convinced white southerners that it was ok to be a republican and a member of the KKK. But the “Christian Coalition was the final nail in the coffin. Dragging abortion and other social wedges into the political conversation just poisoned the well of legitimate political discourse.
I’m afraid it died with Goldwater.
The conservative agenda was hijacked by decidedly non-Conservative Republicans. The sad part is that true conservatism is alive and well in the world, but the sentiment is not reflected in much of the actual leadership. As much as we would like to blame the leadership though, this is not a sufficient answer. There are conservative candidates out there, but much of the Republican Party electorate just do not vote for them. Your average Republican voter has become a coward on many fronts, not the least of which is electoral fear. They vote for whatever garbage is put in front of them out of fear that if they don’t that the Democrats will win and be worse. The real problem in this country is political parties and interestingly enough what we are seeing today is exactly what George Washington warned us about in his farewell address.
“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.”
~George Washington 1796~
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp
Military spending is insane, we have about 1,000 military bases around the world, fighting in wars here, there and everywhere none of which is a direct threat to our country.
I blame the media organisations, like CNN who is owned by GE, who have a big stake in campanies that have military contracts for dis-information and biasing opinion.