The End of Conservatism

I believe that we have just figured out that the cure for conservatism is the hair of the dog. Until you actually try to starve the beast you don't realize that all you're doing is feeding it your children's prosperity--and your retirement savings. The Republicans or conservatives or whatever you want to call them live in a fantasy world where problems solve themselves, tomorrow doesn't matter, private industry is all knowing and tax cuts, especially for the wealthiest among us, are the ultimate good that society can produce. Hillary wrote a book called "It Takes a Village" and the GOP retorted 'no it doesn't, it takes an oil company lobbyist".

Ah, more drivel from you. Since you are a PhD, why don't you back up your arguments with some relevant statistics or is that too much work? Even opinion pieces counts as journalism.

More liberal talking points dressed as news worthy? Please, this in inane. The country is close to a 50-50 divide which is a big improvement over the 60-40 liberal domination of the 60's and 70's I grew up with. The MSM left wing orthodox has survived it all as this drivel indicates but it's impact is ever declining.

20% of the population thinks the sun revolves around the earth. It's no surprise junk science MM global warming theory, Socialism or Newsweek will be around a while longer in the current form. I do wish Bush had shown the same resolve on domestic socialism as he had on terrorism but he is the product of political calculus from inception.

Zakaria wrongly - as does most of the MSM - thinks Bush is a conservative. He is nothing of the sort. I'm not sure what he is, but conservative is not it. Conservatism is not dead. But it was done some damage by Bush as many people now associate Bush with conservatism. The ideals of low taxation and general free market principles will prevail in the long run. We may have to endure a Hillary or Obama presidency. And it will be tough. However, we had to have a Jimmy Carter to get a Ronald Reagan,

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Hi

Eh. I'm not sure that McCain is the hybrid-democon that the Republican party is looking for. And I know, Fareed, that you have to support your troops, but come on, doyou honestly believe that McCain and the Republican party can deal with "islamo-facsism" - as they have so elequently dubbed it - in a world that is growing more and more distainful of US military action in Iraq?

I mean, as 'progessive' as McCain may be, I seriously doubt his world views on the rights and freedoms that minorities [or hostiles] should recieved are as advanced and 'world-friendly' as Obama's.

Although McCain may be the best Republican option [not named Ron Paul, anyways], 'The Emerging Democratic Majority" that you spoke of holds a lot of truths - and what it will boil down to, as usual, will be this - will the various minorities that could usurp the Republican government actually get out to vote in November?

Fareed, I certainly hope they do - The US needs new leadership, not a new old-white-guy.

Fareed: Nonsense. He never mentions the fact that an overwhelming majority of American want something done about illegal immigration to the point of risking alliances with ''Latinos''and others. Indeed,Fareed condemns ''vacuums''by intoducing more vacuums,such as unbridled illegal immigration which this nation will not long tolerate.
Then too,stauncly liberal,as opposed to conservative nations in Europe are seeing themselves shipwrecked on the shores of a ''multicultural ''state. Great Britains Whitehall weighed in with a scathing denounciation of this ''multiculturalism'' ,a bedrock hallmark of modern liberalism ,as a ''failure''. Entire nation-states devoted to older liberal and socilaist ideals begin their swing rightwards in response to a determined Islamic threat. The Archbishop of Canterbury is roundly mocked and condemned by a large majority of Britons for his views on the compatability of Sharia Law in a secular nation. Denmark,one of the most stable of post-war European democracies,is having increasing trouble keeping the lid on Muslim street violence,while France tilts to the right in the guise of Sarkozy and ordinary French people disgusted by violent riot, Belgium creaks under the weight of resurgent anti-Semitism,activated by a strange alliance between Muslims and white supremacists,and the entire continent,is trapped between the elation of an indpendant Kosovo and the fear that it will become a jihadi pond in Europes backyard,fears shared by a Russian president who has had to deal with Chechnyas and Georgias.
Pass to the US,and we find that liberalism,as guided by the left,is no more effective than the conservatism Fareed claims is in descent. Not for nothing do Democrat fiscal and military conservatives align themselves with the GOP minority in order to ward off the machinations of coaster and New England liberals in Congress. [Here,Fareed anticipates the visage of president Obama,who will raise taxes on the middle class in order to fund his socialist programs which,not if,but when found ineffective[see:MEDICARE for more on that],will result in resurgent conservatism after a Nixon-to-Reagan period of wilderness.[Ford,suffering under a split presidency,which did not lead to an effective domestic and foreign policy,and the ''change'' post-Watergate unknown,Carter,whose liberal poiicies weakened the nation in such a manner that resurgent conservatism came roaring back]. No reason whatever to believe that history will not repeat itself. Thus we see less of conservatisms demise than in it's going dormant for a time.[with flashes of it resurfacing now and then in order to provide a balance of power].

Conservatism is meaningless and anti-American drivel, as the "conservative posts above show. Teddy Roosevelt wrote in the Bull Moose Platform that "'This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest." That is democracy and it is exactly what the so-called conservatives hate and mislabel as socialism, in an effort to stifle all rational debate and collective decision making, while hypocritically invoking TR.

Conservatism is a flight from science, democracy, realiy and reason, a cover for a narcissistic compulsion by boomers to live large now at the expense of unborn Americans and other nations, a plague bacillus that will infest the US body politic as long as boomers live. Post boomers are the main victims: Generation Screwed, slated for a declining standard of living in an increasingly third-world-like US. he only question is whether the bacillus will die or be killed before it kills the host. I would say probably not.



Conservatism is a flight from reason, a cover for a narcissistic compulsion by boomers to binge at the expense of unborn Americans and other nations. Conservatism is a plague bacillus that will infest the US body politic as long as boomers live. Post boomers are the main victims: Generation Screwed, slated for a declining standard of living in an increasingly third-world-like US. Will the bacillus die or be killed before it kills the host?
Conservatism is a flight from reason, a cover for a narcissistic compulsion by boomers to binge at the expense of unborn Americans and other nations. Conservatism is a plague bacillus that will infest the US body politic as long as boomers live. Post boomers are the main victims: Generation Screwed, slated for a declining standard of living in an increasingly third-world-like US. Will the bacillus die or be killed before it kills the host?
Conservatism is a flight from reason, a cover for a narcissistic compulsion by boomers to binge at the expense of unborn Americans and other nations. Conservatism is a plague bacillus that will infest the US body politic as long as boomers live. Post boomers are the main victims: Generation Screwed, slated for a declining standard of living in an increasingly third-world-like US. Will the bacillus die or be killed before it kills the host?
It is a toxic mix of boomer narcissi

Good point SkiUSA.

Conservativism does not die any more than socialism does instead they ebb and flow with each generation. Greece died, Rome died, and as the US changes its value system, it too will die, but Conservativism itself does not die. There is always a place for moderation, fiscal responsibility and constitutional limits on government. When a nation goes belly up, out of the ashes always rises conservativism.

Is that why you called for the invasion of Iraq, Zakaria?

Think we have forgotten?

AdirondackcAl, what a remarkably incoherent comment!

Conservatism is not Reaganism, and the confusion of the two is the inherent weakness in Zakaria's argument. He is right on target in saying that the political orthodoxy of the Right fails, to a considerable extent, to confront the realities of the current decade. But ideological liberalism is even more irrelevant. The issue on both sides is the application of an abiding political philosophy to new realties, not their abandonment.

You've overlooked just one item: McCain is a special case scenario. Ever watched "The Sopranos"? Your article thereof would have been about the great gains made by a certain refuse hauler or how much more business was being done at one meat market. In both cases you overlook the criminal element. The Sopranos story is well known; not so much Senator McCain. McCain was caught with his hand in the cookie jar so to speak when the Savings and Loan collapse occured (think a much smaller subprime mortgage situation). The Keating Five (Google that one) were national political leaders who enriched themselves with crooked bankers assisted by sleepy regulators. Four of the five hit the dust bin of history. McCain apparently cut dirty deals with media moguls, creating the framework that allowed them to get rich. By deregulating the cable industry a few small time Tony Soprano types and a few lucky law abiding media owners became richer than their wildest dreams. These are the men and women now who own the writers who scribe the stories of the "Straight Talk Express" and McCain the Maverick. In reality it is an unholy alliance of businesspeople and the best President that money can buy engaging in a conspiracy to fool all of the people just enough in November.
Conservatism is alive and well.
It's just being held hostage by the McCain mobsters. Capece? Ah fuhgeddaboutit!

(Part 2)
Here is why I ultimately think Zakaria is wrong, insomuch as his seeming prediction that conservatism is a spent force. He seems to think that most of us are happy with the current level of taxation, and therefore rates can comfortably be raised. Obama and Hillary both seem to agree with the proposed 44% marginal rate of Charles Rangel, and their relative ignorance of economic principles blinds them to the damage this will do if enacted. It is ridiculous to talk of taxing the rich while essentially leaving large fortunes of the likes of Gates and Buffett essentially untouched (not that I am advocating confiscation), while targeting the small business sub-chapter S owner who might have a good year or two that enables him or her to hire additional staff. The unemployment rate does not simply depend on who gets fired, but also who does not get hired.

We hear a lot about health care and its escalating costs, but the answer is still the conservative solution of individual empowerment (medical savings accounts, portability and the like) and the resulting effect of comparison shopping which would drive many costs down. Why else would Ted Kennedy fight us so bitterly on this issue? He knows full well that once people gain control over their lives, they are unwilling to cede it back to Washington.

Have conservatives lost my fellow Hispanics? Only if they fail to speak to us. We are not asking to be addressed in Spanish - indeed many 2nd and 3rd-generation Latinos speak little of it. But we are rightly suspicious of some of the rhetoric we hear on the right and are driven into supporting the likes of Hillary, who at least posture for us. We are naturally a conservative people, staunch Roman Catholics, who are hard working. We save our money and start businesses - high taxation will hit us as hard as anyone. These truths could be addressed, but if you do not ask for our votes, why should you get them?

I am not suggesting that we alter our basic moral stances against abortion and the highly questionable practice of harvesting human embryos for medical research. Or that we should open the borders (considering they are basically open now) and thereby insult all of those who got into the US legally. What I am saying is that we must offer an alternative to Democrat and socialist policy choices ??? one that is suited to the 21st Century. Listen to the message coming from Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. He is living proof that our message is not dying out.

I am looking forward to see how Sen. Obama governs, if it turns out he gets the chance. As an American I will try to offer my support because he would be the president and at least has a relatively clean record, unlike his primary opponent. Likewise, John McCain offers a chance to recast the conservative message for a new generation, but he may have a tougher job of selling it.

bfp9130,you are entirely right. Somehow, liberals just don't understand that not everyone can live in 100% fairness 100% of the time, and have absolutely everything they want. Life is about making decisions, prioritizing, and finding what is truly valuable to an individual. And not many want to do that anymore. They want the government to hand them everything. Then when the government takes something away or does something the don't like, they get all upset and bitchy about it. That is why "The government that is best is that which governs least." (Thomas Jefferson)

Zakaria is a victim of the 1970's mind set which neatly labels liberals as tax-and-spend and conservatives as anti-tax and economic growth. That whole construct is faulty.

As a retired school teacher from an inner city high school in Los Angeles, I know that many violent criminals were abused as children. It???s far cheaper to provide therapy for an abused child than it is to keep this same child-turned-violent-psychopath locked up in a maximum security prison. It is cheaper to send a boy from the ???hood where I taught to college for 4 years, than to keep him incarcerated for 4 years. If we provide poor asthmatic children with inhalers paid for by SCHIPS, we save health care bills later on in life.

Our health care system is the most corrupt and inefficient in the industrialized world. (See Michael Moore???s Sicko) It is also the most expensive. France, which WHO ranked as # 1, is actually cheaper than our health care. And a proactive form of health care is far cheaper than the reactive form that we currently favor. Similarly, spending the $ 150 to 200 billion dollars a year to create alternative energy (and yes, corn-based ethanol is a waste of money) is far cheaper that the costs of global warming. Creating a more equitable global economy may cut into the profits of the very rich, but al-Qaeda is getting its recruits from festering urban slums that stretch from Morocco to Indonesia, so again, we???re saving money.

These are just a few examples. I could name a lot more, but I???m limited by time and sp[ace.

To be sure, government programs must have much more transparency - they must be run competently, and efficiently. We must eliminate government waste and earmarks. However,. We can achieve those goals by election people who want government to work, rather than electing leaders who want to drown government in a bathtub. Inevitably, the programs tax and spend liberals favor mean lower taxes and a healthier more robust economy later. Tax-and-spend liberals are really the only true fiscal conservatives.

There is a story in Worldnetdaily http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56626
Also a video on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY
Also smoking gun has covered this.

It's about A man named Larry Sinclair who has filed a lawsuit against Obama, his campaign manager and Howard Dean DNC chairman, after he claimed that he had sex with Obama in 1999
and smoked crack cocaine in Obama's limo, The man alleges that the obama and company tried to quiet this man.