The End of Conservatism

A real conservative (conserves) why is this administration spending more than any in history , on a war over nonexistant W.M.D,s in Iraq weve allready won, we killed Sadam and both his sons, took over the country and set up free elections. I guess weve allready fogotten about Binladen. Aslong as we leave it up to contractors (making BILLIONS) and special interests to tell us when weve won it will take 10,000 years. MISSION ACOMPLISHED!!! good job men.

A true conserative (conserves). Why is this administration spending more than any other in history. still fighting a war started over nonexistant W.M.D,s. I thought we won the war after we killed Sadam and both his sons, took over the country and set up free elections. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED right, as long as we leave it up to contractors (making billions) and special interests to decide when weve won this will go on 10,000 years.

What planet is Frum from? Most Americans don't pay very much income tax? "after three decades of tax cutting, most Americans no longer pay very much income tax." Inflation has been tamed, the economy does not seem overregulated...This does not sound like the country I live in!

I find that conservatives have a problem with Bush only in the amesty bill...but you all at Newsweek and the amensty supporters such as Fred Barnes and the other "elite" open border people who call themselves conservatives would be the only one's saying conservatism is dead......we conservatives out here in the real world...not NY or Washington DC would disagree.

"Political ideologies do not exist in a vacuum. They need to meet the problems of the world as it exists. Ordinary conservatives understand this, which may be why???despite the urgings of their ideological gurus???they have voted for McCain. He seems to understand that a new world requires new thinking."

What McCain seems to "understand" is that the world requires new wars. Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.

Comments like this are the reason I will never trust right-wing nuts to run our country.

For the past 7 years, your type has this incredibly annoying habit of insisting that anyone who disagrees with President Bush in any way hates this country. That's the entire Republican party line. Yet every single one of you did nothing but disagree and trash Clinton when he was president. You support hypocrisy in its worst form, and now you're running scared because it's not working anymore.

Every man makes mistakes. Bush I made mistakes. Clinton made mistakes. And yes, George W has made mistakes. The difference is--George W has made ALOT of them. Partisan blinders don't change that.

The sad reality for people like you is, the majority of this country is finally waking up to the fact that how a president handles management of the United States is more important than whether he is a Republican or Democrat. It took George W Bush bungling things so badly to make them see that, but they do.

I don't care about what party our president is in. I'd vote for a Republican in a heartbeat if he was competent--but it's going to take a hell of a performance to win back my vote after Bush II. II want competence in our coutnry's leader. Bush has been incredibly incompetent.

Oh, and by the way... I love this country and our soldiers. The Bush administration has done wrong by both. It's not unpatriotic to question your leaders, as you'd acknowledge if you looked back at everything your blind partisans threw at Clinton when he was president. The entire Republican senate was trashing him while our soldiers were in Kosovo. Support our troops, indeed.

I'm sick of incompetence. I'm sick of stupidity. And I'm sick of right-wing nut jobs like you telling me I'm a traitor to this country because I think we deserve a leader with some intelligence and integrity.

Take the partisan blinders off. Judge our presidents by what they do instead of what party they call home. Whoever wins in November--Obama, Clinton, or McCain--I expect competence, and most of this country is the same. So keep living in your small little right-wing partisan nut job world. The rest of us will live in the real one.

When the Republicans were winning elections there was talk of the end of liberalism and a permanent "Republican Majority". Now that the Democrats are winning geniuses such as Fareed Zakaria are talking about the end of conservatism and a permanent "Democratic Majority". The Democrats will have their chance to mess up our economy and country soon enough; then people will vote for Republicans again. It's a vicious cycle never to be broken.

You know, when the Republicans were winning, there was word of a permanent "Republican Majority". Well, that didn' t happen. Now the Democrats are winning and they are talking about the end of conservatism and a permanent "Democratic Majority." This will also prove false in time. Democrats will have their chance to mess up our economy and our way of life and then people will vote Republican again. Then the Republicans will screw it up and back we go again to the Dems. It's a never ending cycle.

Where conservatism blew it for me was when it shifted from fiscal responsibility to promoting religion and a narrow view of "morality." The Clinton witch hunt was the last straw for me - I left the Republican party in the late 1990s and am now a strong supporter of Barack Obama. If Republicans can stay the heck out of people's bedrooms, and return to a focus on (first getting, then) keeping this country healthy, I'll give them a second look. Until then, I can only hope *social* conservatism will come to be seen as just another failed experiment.

Edmund Burke, a political theorist writing at the time of the French Revolution, watched the liberal french revolution "destroy the good with the bad." The modern conservative functions as an anchor, keeping the Left grounded in reality, so that rampant 'progress' doesnt destroy the good with the bad. As long as the Left continues to view 'change' as the answer to everything(change for the sake of change), there will also be a strong conservative movement in America

A man stands to the side of a house and describes his view. Another man stands on the other side and describes his. What they describe is different because they are looking at the house from two different points of view. If they were to compare notes they might accuse the other of misrepresenting what the house looks like. They might even call each other idiots and nincompoops. Rational people however would realize that they are both looking at the same barn and be able to put the two views together to create a more complete picture.

People are so busy blaming everyone but themselves for this mess we're in. That is a recipe for disaster. If my business operated this way we would go out of business. When we have a problem at work, we all get together and figure out what the solution is and go fix it. We do that over and over again and each day build our business stronger. We are led by the desire to serve our customers, value our people, operate with integrity, reward our stockholders, and contribute to our community. Does this sound like our federal government?

In politics, we argue, point fingers, and make accusations -- we do everything accept come up with a viable solution to what ails us. If a Democrat comes up with a good idea, then a Republican shoots him down and calls him socialist or communtist or liberal or in support of big government. If a Republican comes with a good idea then a Democrat calls him a fascist or a rascist or greedy or in support of big business. It's pretty sad that we can't come together as AMERICANS and agree on a win-win solution. Enough of this Liberal vs. Conversative nonsense. Wake up people!!!! UNITED WE STAND... DIVIDED WE FALL.

In President Washington's farewell address, he warned against parties because of the divisions they would cause amongst us:

"It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration...agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one...against another...it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."

Excerpts taken from --> http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm

lillea: I have a conservative president to thank for terrorists not attacking us in the last 7 years? Um, Sept 11, 2001? That was less than 7 years ago, lest ye forget, and under the not-so-secure eye of a... you guessed it, conservative president!

No, times they are a changing. Democrats need to stop defending themselves with this "contrary to popular belief" stuff -- they ARE the popular belief! Only a few wacky people clinging to the past seriously think that Democrats are loveless, lawless, God-haters. Stop taking the trolls seriously and stand up for yourselves.

For what it's worth, I'm an independent and not a big fan of either party, but it's nice to see most of the conservatives and liberals finally uprooting a little bit so we can work together and actually fix things for a little while. I know most folks out there are reasonable people, so don't let the extremists get you down. :)

Part of the problem with conservatism is that even conservatives don't know what it is. Conservatives used to be opposed to government intrusion into personal privacy. Now most conservatives support warantless spying, certainly a betrayal of their principles. Conservatives used to support a balanced budget, now they never meet a tax cut they don't like, whether the country can afford it or not. Just what is a conservative anyway?