The End of Conservatism

The funny thing is to sit hear and read all of the different posts and not one points out that Bush was not a conservative. The author does not understand what true conservatism is. People need to start being taught economics again. Democratic principles always try to fight free markets because it has winners and losers, and that is not fair according to them. What they do not realize is that the winners then make it better for the losers at the same time by creating jobs and driving up wages, where as in socialism we all lose. I do really get sick of all of the populist BS that spews out of even republicans mouths these days. We have to be really careful in the next few years or we are going to end up back in the 1970???s and then listen to people complain. We have all ready seen the run up in commodities that happened in 72, 73 and some of the other indicators are there as well. As Churchill once said ???democracy works well until everyone realizes they can vote themselves a free lunch,??? and I fear we are all trying to get free lunches these days. You can not fight the free market or things will fall apart. Price discovery is a good thing but when government intervenes it drags things out and makes the lows last longer. I could rant all day but anyone who thinks that socialism is a good thing should go to Russia and see what a mess is there to this day even almost 20 years after the fall of communism.

The implication of the article is that McCain won the nomination because he is more dovish than the candidates favored by conservatives. What a joke!! McCain has been the superhawk all throught the campaign. His POW ads and his famous joke about Hilary's Woodstock museum; That's how he won nomination. The main conservative objection to his candidacy is McCain wants lift restriction on immigration, especially from Mexico.

"With the recent furor over immigration, the battle for Latinos and Asian-Americans is probably lost for the Republicans." This assumes that these groups are single-issue immigration voters, and there no basis for thinking this.

If we always went with what was popular, the British would still be running this country.

If we followed all the ideas of the people who are against old-school conservatism, we will go right back to a miserable state which made old-school conservatism so popular in the first place. If we always went with what was popular, the British would still be running this country!

"Americans' views of the state are shifting. They don't want bigger government..." How can you make this statement and then follow it with the conclusion that "In this context, conservative slogans sound weirdly anachronistic..."? Limiting and reducing the size of government is the cornerstone of conservativism. The reason that the Republicans in congress and President Bush have taken such a beating is exactly because they have eschewed the core conservative principles. "DON'T tax and spend" is as bad or worse than "tax and spend." The idea that is dead is the liberal idea that government can solve society's problems. The end of the cold war and the resulting comparison of eastern and western European economies should have put to rest once and for all the notion that government is the best arbiter of how to allocate resources. Capitalism is not perfect, but it is far better than the socialism espoused by the liberals.

"Americans' views of the state are shifting. They don't want bigger government..." How can you make this statement and then follow it with the conclusion that "In this context, conservative slogans sound weirdly anachronistic..."? Limiting and reducing the size of government is the cornerstone of conservativism. The reason that the Republicans in congress and President Bush have taken such a beating is exactly because they have eschewed the core conservative principles. "DON'T tax and spend" is as bad or worse than "tax and spend." The idea that is dead is the liberal idea that government can solve society's problems. The end of the cold war and the resulting comparison of eastern and western European economies should have put to rest once and for all the notion that government is the best arbiter of how to allocate resources. Capitalism is not perfect, but it is far better than the socialism espoused by the liberals.

Every time conservatism is read it's last rites (by democrats) a Lincoln is born or Teddy Roosevelt of a Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and the dems get served a TKO. Let's always remember that the bright ideas of liberalism have ruined public schools, helped promote abortion first - birth second, impoverished the poor by creating a welfare state, killed millions of Africans with the most ridiculous of schemes and lost a Civil War. Now that is a track record that only Hitler and Satan could love - nice company.

Yes indeed, the permanent Democratic majority that you look forward to will apply the innovative and extremely avant- guard solutions of tax, spend and regulate everything that moves and much of what doesn't.
This, combined with the elitist assurances emanating from the Party's ideological gurus that it is the United States and not the menagerie of tin pot dictators and Islamic terrorists who cause most of the world's pressing problems is what made liberalism a four letter word, electorally speaking, in the first place, and the Democrats, the bitter and pinched bunch they are now.
We shall see in November how well Mr. Obama's fluffy homilies about "change???, ???hope" , "hope to change" etc resonate with those who aren't already the hard core of his base.

The end of neoconservatism. The premise of Preemption. Use of low-grade wars and the employment of the "Noble Lie" to govern. Use of Fear to govern. Embracement of the Welfare State. Wild deficit spending and the complete abandonment of Limited Government as a concept, is what collapsed the Republican Party. Republicans will need to go sit in the corner. Have a little quiet time. Maybe they are meant to be in the minority in order for them to BE conservative . . . and all that it means.

Fareed: 60's wisdom was "don't trust anyone over 30." Yes, "a new world requires new thinking," but that 60's wisdom may be as applicable today as then, or even more so. If today's youth is anything like any of us were, what you, I, McCain, Hillary or even Obama say will not be understood, let alone trusted by them. Your next column, you might well-consider: The End of 20th Century Politics --Liberal or Conservative. Dick Potomac

And now with nearly ALL of the main stream media and billionaire foreigners like George Soros, fully and openly supporting and promoting this destructive agenda, the Conservative movement is quickly being backed into a corner and they are moving in for the kill.

There are only TWO counters left to stop this tsunami that is threatening our very freedom and way of life. They are conservative talk radio and the internet. If either Hillary Clinton(s), who has Marxist roots, or B. Hussein Obama, a known Socialist, win the presidency in November, they will quickly move to reinstate the ???Fairness Doctrine???as the first step toward dismantlement of conservative talk radio. That will leave the internet. With companies like www.google.com ( have already bowed down to Communist China???s pressure there) controlling an ever growing segment of what goes online and what doesn???t, it will not be that difficult for the Socialist/Communists to tailor it to their agenda here. And once that happens, ladies and gentlemen, it will be all over but the crying.

A HERE AND NOW EXAMPLE:

THIS bill is coming up THIS WEEK, is VERY dangerous and has to be STOPPED. It is sponsored by Barack Hussein Obama and basically amounts to turning over United States sovereignty to, of all things, the United Nations!
This bill is sponsored by many of the biggest Socialists in Congress, including Feinstein, Hagel, yes, OBAMA! Here's an article pertaining to it: http://pencilnub.com/2008/02/15/barack-obama-is-bad-for-america/

Just one example of what will happpen if this thing is implemented is that our gas prices at the pump will go up 35 cents per DOLLAR paid IMMEDIATELY! It will also allow the UN to LEGALLY dictate to US arms control (kiss the 2nd Amendment goodbye).

ALL of the money that is "extorted" from the U.S. will be allocated to third world countries via the UN! Are you kidding? Here's a good site to start with to get up to speed on it:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s2433/show.

When they proclaimed COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM, I thought they are on the right track. But then Compassion was gone. They believe POWER belongs only to them and do not believe in fair and honest election as they did in Florida in 2000. And that wealth is theirs and no more extra taxes from them to feed the poor and the needy. They only love their group. Love begets love.

Fareed, I really enjoy your writing and analysis. I have just completed my BS in Political science after many years of military service. I hope to develope my analytical tools and articulae them as well as you. Good Job.

PS Why are you not a regular on this WEEK program! It is time for George Will to give up the seat!

I'd not say conservatism is dead, but Reagan and Bush's type of conservatism is. Conservatism was a political philosophy which called for restrain in spending, responsible budgets (pay-go), a rational but realistic foreign policy and reduced goverment intervention. If I had been of age in the '70s I'd have been a Republican!

What we've had under Bush is a run-away-spending, obscene government subsidies to industries making record profits (oil companies and healthcare industry), little restrain in government intervention and a president winning an election in part on the fear of gays getting married. If Clinton had done half of those things conservatives would not have stop accusing him of being an "ultra-liberal" which they did anyway.

Conservatism is not dead. The hypocritical Bushism and Reganism are.

The problem for Republicans is "what you see is what you get". In the past 7.1 years of the Bush Administration there is no doubt the US has been diminished militarily, economically, diplomatically and technologically. 70% of the US population knows we are on the wrong track and we were brought to this place in time on the wings of Republican conservative policies. The US is a superpower ...in fact a "hyper power??? certainly capable of doing more than just defending ourselves from an asymmetric attack. The Bush period of conservatism will go down in history as one of the most abysmal squandering of national power witnessed in modern times. Now we are left with cleaning up the mess if we are to save ourselves. As they say ??? ...when you drive your call off a cliff; as the Neocons have done to US policy, ....your options narrow".