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You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Goldwater Conservatism”.
Good point about FDR. Lefties blame Hoover for the depression then advocate the same tax increases and the same protectionist tariffs Hoover initiated and FDR continued.
I was part of the Goldwater for President campaign when I was a teenager. Back then the voting age was 21 so I was too young to vote, but I worked for his campaign for almost a year. I met Ronald Reagan in the West Los Angeles Goldwater for President office.
These days Republican Presidential candidates don't even open offices in Los Angeles. What a shame. Every election, for federal and state offices, the GOP gives CA away to the Dems. If California's electoral votes switched from Democrat to Republican it would be utterly impossible for the Dems to win a Presidential election.
Barry Goldwater didn't cede California to the Left. He fought for it. Ronald Reagan was elected Ca governor twice and won CA in both his Presidential runs. But the modern GOP wimps out on California every time.
We need another Goldwater my friend. Another Goldwater, another Taft, and another Coolidge ... We'd have much more to look forward to.
I was reading the Daily Pundit the other day and he said something you said to me before, that he was old enough to understand how less free we are today, than we were just a few short decades ago. I think that's an important message to get out there.
You sound less crazy than the other conservatives. Maybe you can explain some things that a lot of people are missing from the shouting conservatives of today. You guys don't take much time to explain yourselves any more. Or provide alternative programs of any depth. You do resemble the left from the sixties. Very emotional, not focused, full of vindictive, unproductive rage. I think you will find a lot of middle of the road americans find difficult to understand and would be interested in a rational explanation.
1. When was the last time a republican took Barry Goldwater seriously? We have had four republican presidents since Goldwater and all were big spenders. The last one was the biggest. Clinton balanced the budget with a big prod from Gingrich. Clinton you hate. Gingrich you kicked down stairs.
Conservatives shout about spending but it seems you don't mind borrowing. And when taxes are raised to pay for various discretionary wars, you get angry. It looks as though Democrats pay your bills. And don't tell me it was democratic congresses that upped the spending. Its a cop out. You guys spend like Kings. When in government you all do. Just as much as a democrat. Barry Goldwater, a republican? Yes he was. But thats not what Republican means anymore.
2. Bush, a man you all supported heavily, put us in hock to the Chinese with his badly fought, not particularly effective wars. The Chinese still call themselves communists. And everything you don't like about communism, the CCCP is still doing. So how did you guys get to be their friends? When did communism stop being a dirty word outside the US but become a postit note to stick on the forehead of any one in the US that makes a Tea Partier scowl? Your moral principles are pretty sloppy. But you sure make a lot noise when democrats do anything you think of as "socialist." Its so disingenuous.
3. What about failure? Whether you're a conservative or a liberal, from a purely objective view, the republican moment of power in congress and the whitehouse was a litany of bad decisions, incompetance, and outright failure. Oh. And spending.
You deregulated ( with democrats help I grant ) the economy without care or attention. That I would have thought would be a moment to demonstrate patriotism by getting it right. But no. It was done haphazard, with help of lobbyists from the Banks. And now, you blame the democrats. Thats something you do a lot. It devious, small, divisive, and totally unhelpful. You do it a lot.
Health care: you all voted a prescription bill in at the end of Bush Jr's tenure. What? ... Moving on ... Somehow, conservatives lack a HC plan they are willing to project into the media, to let us all see and to explain it. I know HC is rotten. American health care is going to be the most expensive in the world. Its a problem. Its a failure. But the republicans blame the democrats.
Iraq was a fiasco. Afganistan didn't have a plan. OBL walked away from the finest military power the world has ever known and into Pakistan. Katrina. But somehow conservatives do not need to address failure. Its always some else's fault. Introspection is oddly not done. Conservatism is an a complete mess but everyone seems to think it fine. But your accomplishments are shallow, your agents have been incompetent and your actions have not demonstrated care and deliberation. Why should anyone trust you unless you can fool them? Which I see a lot of your people are doing.
And no, saying the Democrats are worse, is not an argument.
Me? I believe government should be small, responsible, not ideological and should keep a sharp eye and a working brain on the poor. You guys, when I you're drunk I suppose, like to think unfettered capitalism will cure poverty. Historically it never happened. Pure Capitalism or a cure for poverty. Capitalism is great but it does create a certain amount of poverty. So hard work will be required instead of wistful conservative
fantasising. I have to stop. Frankly you guys just piss me off. Sorry.
You should stick around here John. We won't agree on everything, but you'll find the reason I "sound less crazy than the other conservatives" is because most of them think I'm a crazy extremist! I'm against the wars, spend as much time ripping Republicans as I do Democrats, and don't engage in bumper sticker politics. Hope to see you again!
Now that I think about it the new conservatives resemble the old left in so many ways. So many so very american ways.
- Their opposition is hopeless. With enemies like the democrats, the republicans don't need friends. They let the right slide on everything. Consequently the rhetoric on the right is completely undisciplined and mostly full on loony. The cogent thinkers are drowned out by the idiots. Just like the old left.
- The right thinks they know whats wrong but they do not present cogent solutions. Again, this is up to the opposition to do. So Nixon actually ended the Vietnam war for the left. The left would not have had the slightest idea how to do it, nor would they have had the desire to take the punches Nixon took for doing it. Its the same with the right today. It was Clinton who balanced the budget, along with the right's scapegoat and sometime whipping boy Gingrich. And Clinton and Gingrich took the punches. Then along came the right's shining hope, Bush Jr. Not only did he not want to balance the budget, he wanted to spend more. ( Bush Jr. taught me to love Clinton, which really is amazing) Now Obama is going to have to clean up Bush Jr.'s spectacularly incompetent wars. And the right is going to punch him for it. But he's tough and he'll take it and do the job. Just like Nixon. Its familiar scenario because its just like the old left.
-The right thinks they believe their own BS. But they don't. In the old left, there were a lot of crazy people who were given a sort of poetic license to vomit in words. These people had a some crazy ideas that were vaguely socialistic and vaguely revolutionary. The right in those days were saner and didn't take it all too seriously. How right (sic) they were. The left pretended to believe it, spouting outrageous phrases and saying they believed in things like communes and peace. But it was all for effect and stopped a leftist from actually having to figure out what they hell they really believed. Its the same today. The right's pundit of the moment ( today its' Beck, be someone else tomorrow ) is Mr. Beck of course. Does the majority of the right believe all that nonsense. Of course not. But it sounds good. Well you guys have some fun by all means. Don't expect to get anything done.
Mr. Buckley is dead. I agreed with half of what he said. But that was his point wasn't it. You didn't have to agree, you just had to listen. And he listened to other people. He was a supremely gracious man. God bless the deluded old windbag. We surely need him now. Because the right has appropriated the moral podium. And in america, when a group does that, vanity and madness preside. The right has talked itself stupid.
Its going to need the left to save it. They will be returning the favor.
You're right, the new right really is a lot like the new left was. A lot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vjrzUplWU