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CHECK US OUT AT: http://delawareliberal.wordpress.com/Saturday, December 03, 2005
The truth about "REAL Conservatives"
In the comments below an anonymous Republican connected tax cuts to "today's overwhelmingly positive job numbers." I'll leave the validity of the statement that the job numbers report were "overwhelmingly positive" aside for now, because I have a bigger question.
What I want to know is - what ever happened to the real conservatives? I mean, imagine the reaction of REAL conservatives if a Democratic President invaded a country because he said it posed a threat, but we later found out that the real reason for the invasion was to "spread democracy." I thought real conservatives were against nation building?
Imagine the reaction of REAL conservatives if a Democratic President said, "Deficits don't matter." and adopted a policy of growing the federal government at a pace not seen since LBJ?
What happened to the folks who would have once objected if the federal government decided to ignore it's international obligations and treaties? What ever happened to the ideological conservatives?
I have a theory, and it goes back to the mythological connection between tax cuts and alleged "positive job numbers". My theory is that conservatives were never really opposed to an expansive foreign policy on ideological grounds, they opposed it because it would have raised taxes. Furthermore, they were never for "smaller government" because of some libertarian/conservative notion of personal freedom, they simply wanted to pay less taxes.
The Bush regime has pulled away the curtain and exposed the conservative movement for what it is. Not an ideology, but simple greed. It is simple greed that motivates conservatives. Not some higher calling to "limit government". It is simple greed that informs every issue. Deficits: No problem provided you don't raise taxes. Nation Building: Great, provided you don't raise taxes. On and on. A few years back conservatives wanted to do away with the Department of Education. "What business does the federal government have in education anyway?" they asked. Now, with Bush building a huge federal NCLB bureaucracy within the bureaucracy that is the Department of Education, they say "bring it on - but don't raise taxes."
Well, they may have the whip hand today, but outgoing federal reserve chairman Greenspan's comments do not bode well for the "greed is good" crowd. Addressing European banks, Greenspan was not wishy washy about the fact that our Federal credit card has a limit, and we are going to start making payments whether we like it or not. The question is, are we going to pay in dollars or human misery? I suspect if you ask conservatives which payment method they would prefer they would have a ready answer.
What I want to know is - what ever happened to the real conservatives? I mean, imagine the reaction of REAL conservatives if a Democratic President invaded a country because he said it posed a threat, but we later found out that the real reason for the invasion was to "spread democracy." I thought real conservatives were against nation building?
Imagine the reaction of REAL conservatives if a Democratic President said, "Deficits don't matter." and adopted a policy of growing the federal government at a pace not seen since LBJ?
What happened to the folks who would have once objected if the federal government decided to ignore it's international obligations and treaties? What ever happened to the ideological conservatives?
I have a theory, and it goes back to the mythological connection between tax cuts and alleged "positive job numbers". My theory is that conservatives were never really opposed to an expansive foreign policy on ideological grounds, they opposed it because it would have raised taxes. Furthermore, they were never for "smaller government" because of some libertarian/conservative notion of personal freedom, they simply wanted to pay less taxes.
The Bush regime has pulled away the curtain and exposed the conservative movement for what it is. Not an ideology, but simple greed. It is simple greed that motivates conservatives. Not some higher calling to "limit government". It is simple greed that informs every issue. Deficits: No problem provided you don't raise taxes. Nation Building: Great, provided you don't raise taxes. On and on. A few years back conservatives wanted to do away with the Department of Education. "What business does the federal government have in education anyway?" they asked. Now, with Bush building a huge federal NCLB bureaucracy within the bureaucracy that is the Department of Education, they say "bring it on - but don't raise taxes."
Well, they may have the whip hand today, but outgoing federal reserve chairman Greenspan's comments do not bode well for the "greed is good" crowd. Addressing European banks, Greenspan was not wishy washy about the fact that our Federal credit card has a limit, and we are going to start making payments whether we like it or not. The question is, are we going to pay in dollars or human misery? I suspect if you ask conservatives which payment method they would prefer they would have a ready answer.
posted by jason # 12:51 PM 
Comments:
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Yeah, yeah and yeah, Jason.
I have no doubts that the truth you tell exposes this CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP ass GOPer positioning....it underlies the whole shebang of Reaganomics and all that has followed...absolutely.
The weirdest thing to me was when my very conservative dad and one of my conservative brothers voted for Ross Perot instead of Bushie 1 because of the 1980's crazy spending and deficit build up that led to the recession which cost them stock value. It showed me where true Republicans stood in fiscal policy.
Heightened deficits, lowered regulations, government growth et al lead to the crisis of the late '80's markets.
The special interests of this administration are throwing in a foreign relations twist, nation building, that is all about oil control.
But the huge, huge GOPer vote draw(bigger than gays, guns and the unborn) is the promise to eliminate taxes.
I have no doubts that the truth you tell exposes this CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP ass GOPer positioning....it underlies the whole shebang of Reaganomics and all that has followed...absolutely.
The weirdest thing to me was when my very conservative dad and one of my conservative brothers voted for Ross Perot instead of Bushie 1 because of the 1980's crazy spending and deficit build up that led to the recession which cost them stock value. It showed me where true Republicans stood in fiscal policy.
Heightened deficits, lowered regulations, government growth et al lead to the crisis of the late '80's markets.
The special interests of this administration are throwing in a foreign relations twist, nation building, that is all about oil control.
But the huge, huge GOPer vote draw(bigger than gays, guns and the unborn) is the promise to eliminate taxes.
# posted by 
: 2:37 PM
: 2:37 PM
Yeah, it's too bad that we're in a war that's costing billions of dollars, and we had two of the worst hurricanes in history, and the economy is still bursting at the seams. It simply proves that the Bush tax cuts did exactly what the administration said they would: Revive the economy after the 9/11 mini-depression and spur job growth. I know it hurts, guys, but keep your heads up. There's a reason we've only had one liberal president (and a disaster at that) since LBJ.
# posted by : 6:21 PM
: 6:21 PM
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist
(Out of favor now, I suppose.)
Kris
John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist
(Out of favor now, I suppose.)
Kris
# posted by : 7:54 PM
: 7:54 PM
"the economy is still bursting at the seams"
You live in a dream world. Maybe you were thinking Clinton was still in office or something.
You live in a dream world. Maybe you were thinking Clinton was still in office or something.
4.3% Q3 Growth. 200,000 new jobs.
Still waiting for an actual argument, Jason...
Still waiting for an actual argument, Jason...
# posted by : 11:57 PM
: 11:57 PM
GOPer.....are you serious??
The long term "weight" of the ever climbing deficit and the big and only bigger TRADE IMBALANCE is giving us a pot belly!!
There's a bubble bursting in home sales, higher interest rates coming soon and the GOPers want to balance the budget on the backs of food stamp users and needy kids lunches.....is this "good" economy a fair and just one for the general welfare?
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The long term "weight" of the ever climbing deficit and the big and only bigger TRADE IMBALANCE is giving us a pot belly!!
There's a bubble bursting in home sales, higher interest rates coming soon and the GOPers want to balance the budget on the backs of food stamp users and needy kids lunches.....is this "good" economy a fair and just one for the general welfare?
# posted by : 7:03 PM
: 7:03 PMSubscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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