The Classic Liberal Blog

A Moderate History of the G.O.P. - Part One

Picking up where we left off, we'll start with the 1948 presidential campaign. Obviously, each election period covered includes much more detail than I've written, but my purpose here isn't to dissect each election precisely, but to simply show you the consistent broad patterns.  The Republican Party has its own agenda, and it's often much different than that of its constituents.

1948 Presidential Election:

Two years earlier in 1946, the Republican Party finally won a major election, campaigning on the slogan "Had Enough?"

Had enough debt?
Had enough inflation?
Had enough strikes?
Had enough communism?

The ...

Reason Magazine put together a couple of great videos regarding paying your taxes.

Is it patriotic to pay taxes? And if so, who the most patriotest Americans? Who are the least? How many words are in the tax code? How much do patriotic Americans pay to prepare their taxes? How long do you have to work in a year to earn enough to pay your taxes?

The answers to these and other questions add up to one big W-2 WTF.

W-2 WTF?!?!-Tax facts to make your head explode!

Today, we're going to take a brief, yet enlightening walk through the presidential campaigns of the Republican Party from the beginning of the conservative movement.  What will be surprising in the end (but really shouldn't be) is that now is, as it was then ... same as it ever was.

The conservative movement was born in the early 20th century in opposition to Herbert Hoover's Big Government agenda and Roosevelt''s New Deal.  It was firmly rooted in the timeless principles upon which this country was founded - individual rights, private property, and small government.  The "fathers" of the movement were people like H.L. Mencken and T.S. Eliot.  Conservatism was not a "Republican" movement, but a grassroots one of "the ...

I was preparing to write a brief history of the Republican Party earlier this afternoon, but of course, I started by procrastinating.  I was reading some other blogs when I came across this excellent post by Robert Stacy McCain:

'Kooks,' Blue-State Republicans, Rick Moran, and the Messaging Problem

Hot Air headlined Rick Moran's lengthy examination of the "kook"

...

Here's a round-up of the 10 most popular posts last month, March 2009.

An American Tea Party
Blogging Politics 3
The Enemy List
Conservative Confession
AIG Bonus Bull...

Today felt like a good day to "offend" the "Wallers" (those "separation" fanatics who get all uptight when religion and politics get commingled in a conversation) ...

Actually, I just wanted to address a fundamental misunderstanding many Christians have regarding their relationship with government.

One of the most abused passages in the Bible directly addresses taxation.

Mark 12:17 (New American Standard Bible):

And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him.

The standard lesson we're supposed to learn from this passage is:
Jesus paid his taxes, so should you. Case closed.

Let me explain why this blanket interpretation is wrong.

A terrific article posted at Mises Daily by Thorsten Polleit, Honorary Professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, provides a wonderful primer in central banking, Austrian economics, and inflation. This is important stuff folks!

It has been reprinted in its entirety here, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license, courtesy of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Read "There Will Be (Hyper)Inflation" below the fold.

The following were the 5 most watched videos here at The Classic Liberal Blog last month.

1.  Rick Santelli and the Chicago Tea Party