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  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    I was recently in a forum arguing with an Obama supporter about what the economic future held. He derided me for my pessimism. Until I calmly pointed out that no other nation in history has ever gained prosperity by large increases in spending, and that inflation always follows. As i said “I have history on my side”

    And we have quite a lot of history. This is not rocket surgery, we know what works and what doesn’t. All it takes is not to be blinded by an ideology that puts emotion ahead of common sense.

    We know how to make a good society; Low marginal tax rates, Limited government intrusion, sound money policies, Free trade, freedom of association. And decentralized government.

    It is just that these things are not flashy or romantic. They are practical.

  • Shaggy_DA

    Accountability IMHO is the true essential element of conservatism. Life experience brings about an understanding of resposibility and how actions have consequences. As you note, the pro-choice movement disregards the emotional wound which may never heal – a position that necessarily ignores accountability for the consequence of the action.

    The liberals of today purposefully hide accountability under the rug. Action is in and of itself the only focus as action is what is used to maintain power. The New Deal teaches this – the action of providing welfare to the unfortunate (whether based on logic, emotion or even faith) is laudable, but when done through the auspices of government it created a dependancy class. Accountability — for both provider and provided for — was not a priority and now that lack of accountability is used for gain to maintain power.

    On a grander scale, the Constitution requires an adherence to its principles (accountability) to maintain its effectiveness and relevance. When it is diluted, distorted and perverted accountability is lost.

    Well done Dan, but I think you could have taken it one step further.

    • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

      Another way is to say that the Conservative philosophy is a science of the government of Man. Using empirical processes, building on previous innovations, produces constant improvement in wealth, happiness, and security. But when all the previous science is thrown out then we of necessity fall back to caveman times. Well, that’s what the so-called progressives do. They throw out the science of government and replace it with blind faith.

  • Scott Mustian

    It would be fascinating to see the core elements of a liberal and moderate in contrast to this. Unfortunately that is not possible. A liberal will never express his core values because he does not want anyone to know his real goals. And of course a moderate does not have any principles that last past the next opinion poll or mood of the moment.

  • StandardCandle

    Dan,

    In all of your document I believe what is missing is motivation.

    I think now would be a good time to own up to the fact that our history shows that some men seek office to obtain and maintain power, where others have sought to public office to seek authority to keep things moving along well and seek the interests of all Americans.

    In my estimation current American politics has been centered on strong rule utilitarianism and natural law whether coming from the left or the right. The difference is motivation. It seems to me that the left has always been about radicalizing the rational will of the individual to justify behavior that is considered out of norm. The right has always attempted to use empiricism to explain the necessity of understanding history, and yet they dilute by utilizing rational reductionism when it comes to pragmatism by becoming outcome speculators.

    The issue at hand is that our founders were not utilitarian so much as they were for the rights of individualism to be protected by a federalist government based upon representation and geography. I think you lightly mentioned this when discussing the fact that libertarianism asks questions but provides no answers.

    In my view this comeback that we hope is eventual and all were doing is fighting for limited time in the minority is utterly foolish.

    Freedom is at the heart of all of this. I believe that conservatives are having an ethical identity crisis, because they continue to sell out core values for the sake of pragmatism.

    Your castle in the sky analogy doesn’t resonate with me in the least. Neither does the castle rooted in the ground.

    I view this discussion of comeback from an entirely different perspective. I believe that the 2008 Election was the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. By that I mean politics in the United States has always stemmed from the people. What this last election has done has indeed proven that the people have become so easily persuaded from the top down that we now have populism not a republic or even a democracy. Effectively speaking the presidency is losing its moral authority because it has become beholden to partisan policy that does not act in the interest of America, but of the party and the power.

    I agree with you that our history suggests that ideas have formed by states, been tried, and successful models are replicated nationwide as you discussed in the conclusion of your meme. However I am waiting for the next state to put into resolution a political smackdown on the federal government. Is there a state out there willing to tell the King to “get off my lawn”?

    My question to you is… how do you see conservatives regaining power without educating people on the loss of freedom that is taking place? Americans don’t fight until they realize their freedom is being stolen and tyranny is on the move. Thank goodness we’re not Bosheviks or French… There is no need for revolution in our country… there is a need for good people to stand up and educate others about the origin of freedom and the loss that is coming and how to prevent it.

    In the mean time… I wish there was a polite way to say to all the libertarians… get over it… the system is beyond your theoretical world, work with what you have to reduce as much government as you can, and if you don’t like it… try another country.

    • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

      You put quite a lot of different points into your comment. Are you saying that Rs have been power seekers, just like Ds? True, but expected. See Lord Acton’s famous quote. Are you saying that Rs have thrown out their principles for personal gain, political gain? Or are you saying that about conservatives in general? Let me state my opinion about the same general topics and see if you agree.

      1. R politicians have gone rogue and forgotten they are supposed to get their principles from their base.

      2. R politicians sacrificed other priorities to win against al Qaeda and the Ba’athist Nazis in Iraq and enormous pressure from Ds that would have forced the US to lose.

      3. Dubya made terrible, terrible, awful mistakes on the economy. Not least among them was only making his tax cuts temporary. At the end, with Paulson’s bad advice he turned into Hoover v.2 and ushered in the 2nd Great Depression we will suffer for the rest of Obama’s regime. This mistake has to never happen again.

      4. Obama and the Ds are trying to transform the US into a fascist / syndicalist / socialist oligarchy with a happy face through aggressive nationalization and unionization combined with a permanent propaganda campaign.

      Lunatic spending levels will cause more and more crises. Each crisis will be an opportunity to take control of something else. People will feel the air being sucked out of their lungs by the huge tax and inflation increases, and by the breakneck race to take away all their freedoms.

      Freedom is the message that can defeat the Ds. It is the only message that will resonate enough to blow them away. And Libertarians *own* freedom. The Rs need the Libertarians for their message and their ideas, just as much as the Libertarians need Rs for a party structure and history. Rs were, after all, the anti-Slavery party. That’s freedom too. There is no reason why the anti-Slavery party can’t also be the Freedom party.

      • StandardCandle

        with exception to…

        Lunatic spending levels will cause more and more crises. Each crisis will be an opportunity to take control of something else.

        Freedom is the message. It is the only message that will resonate enough to [ensure freedom]. And Libertarians *own* freedom.[No they think they do that's the problem]

        Beagle, my comments were for Dan… in response to his lengthy post.

        Let me answer you on where I’m coming from with your list.

        1. R politicians have gone rogue and forgotten they are supposed to get their principles from their base.

        Congressional republicans are asleep and think this is just ebb and flow… and the uniformed R electorate is as asleep as their representatives.

        2. R politicians sacrificed other priorities to win against al Qaeda and the Ba?athist Nazis in Iraq and enormous pressure from Ds that would have forced the US to lose.

        Rs didn’t sacrifice anything, The Bush/Cheney administration did, and this to their credit is legacy that can’t be re-written to reflect failure. The R’s on the other hand sold out Bush/Cheney distancing themselves for what they anticipated would be a bad precipice to run on. Congressional R’s are Damned fools if you ask me.

        3. Dubya made terrible, terrible, awful mistakes on the economy. Not least among them was only making his tax cuts temporary. At the end, with Paulson?s bad advice he turned into Hoover v.2 and ushered in the 2nd Great Depression we will suffer for the rest of Obama?s regime. This mistake has to never happen again.

        Dubya and company was fooled by the Fed when this all started. I saw nationalization was where it would all head, Blackhedd saw this too, but prepared us for it… Where Dubya failed was in drawing the line and warning the public about Obama’s next move to use fear tactics and blame to push more spending through… and yes… in the end Paulson didn’t so much sell out as he failed to inform and agreed Bush will be called Hoover v.2.0.

        4. Obama and the Ds are trying to transform the US into a fascist / syndicalist / socialist oligarchy with a happy face through aggressive nationalization and unionization combined with a permanent propaganda campaign.

        Do or do not there is no try… and they my friend are doing exactly that.

        In the end… I think we miss the boat on this rebuilding the party message…

        I don’t want to rebuild the party or start from ground zero… I want to do a check on motivation and loyalty of all currently in congress… and then purge those that can’t conform to a plan that requires personal sacrifices to say and do and support the right things, then their fate is already sealed to failure.

        I’m tired of hearing folks on this site complain about plans or otherwise, because until their locally involved then they’re just a bunch of querulous theorists with a keyboard. :)

        • Dan McLaughlin

          with the need to fire people up, as a tactic.

          I’m looking a little deeper here at what the centerpiece of our message is.

          • StandardCandle

            My response had to go up as a separate post. HERE

          • StandardCandle

            My response had to go up as a separate post. HERE

  • WarEagle01

    Experience is crucial, but it needs to be combined with wisdom. I reject the time-worn adage that “wisdom comes with age.” I’ve known teenagers who were wiser than some oldster liberals I’ve run into. I do, however, acknowledge that experience comes with age, and age provides a wise person with a set of experiences from which he can draw inferences. This, I think, is a key difference between liberals and conservatives. It is why we continue to battle against liberals over such things as their “efforts to repeal the laws of economic reality to cater to demagogic appeals to ‘fairness’ and blatant nonsense like protectionism and minimum wage and rent control laws.” Liberals are born bereft of even a modicum of wisdom.

    • StandardCandle

      “when you’re old and liberal you haven’t got a brain, and when you’re young and conservative you haven’t got a heart…”

      I just assumed I was a heartless cheeky youngster.