I'm a big fan of TAO's blog Radical Perspective. It ranks up there with Brain Rage as two of the best blogs on the Internet. But since I've been visiting, I've noticed TAO's tone has gotten more heated. I don't blame him.
Throughout history, assholes have hijacked ideas, religions, economic systems, God knows what else, as a justification for their own greed, selfishness, want of power, or just cause some of them enjoyed being assholes.
TAO's Conservatism has been hijacked and as a movement, most likely destroyed by the greedy and the Neocons like Cheney, Addison and others. They used a word that would register positively with Americans and blinded all to their real agenda. Making lots of money and having lots of power for the few in their movement. Bush was a blind fool. Government agencies and law enforcement were used to protect and promote the neocon agenda. Illegal wiretaps. A Justice Department staffed with legal illiterate graduates of Liberty University. A willing dupe in Alberto Gonzalas. Before him, a religious zealot whose first concern was placing towels over statues of bare breasted women.
Because of the pain inflicted on America by those that hijacked Conservatism and the Republican Party, both these things are close to the end. The Republican Party will come back eventually because that's the way things work. Not because of a return to real Conservative ideals or anything so grand. But because the party in power can only go so long before screwing things up and giving the other a way back to power.
But Conservatism is all but dead. Although they tried to kill Liberalism, all the knives they threw at it bounced off. Millions of elderly and disabled thank God for FDR and Social Security. The thank God for LBJ and Medicare. Minorities thank God and LBJ for the Civil Rights Act.
I can't think of anything to thank Conservatism for except skyrocketing deficits and economic misery.
When one thinks of great Conservatives, I guess they think of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Reagan was no Conservative. He has been deified mostly because Conservatives had nobody else to make a saint. Barry Goldwater was a cranky guy from Arizona. All his years as Senator and the only thing we remember was the little girl getting nuked ad LBJ laid on him.
I'm not crying any rivers over the death of Conservatism. Good riddance as far as I'm concerned. My only advice is to real Conservatives. Find another name for your movement if you want your ideals to live beyond 2012.
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9 comments:
I do feel bad for real conservatives that they have had their party hijacked by the infection that is, neocons. It could certainly happen to the Dems, as well. Let's hope not. We need to rein in the empire bullshit.
If things get bad enough, the Repubs could always change their name back to the whig party.
Ronald Reagan was a conservative but he was kidnapped and used by those with an agenda.
For the last 20 years that has basically been all conservatism and the mantle of Ronald Reagan has been; nothing but a front for people with an agenda.
Supply side economics, was just a front for big economic interests to enrich themselves. The Christian Coalition was just a front for a bunch of...I have no earthly idea! Then lastly you have the neo conservatives.
Liberalism has had troubles with leadership also, Al Gore, John Kerry they did not quite get the message out. Barack Obama did. Bill Clinton did but he was more a political animal than a true liberal.
Conservatives have never really had a leader or a spokesman. In actuality conservatism is something all of us believe in. Its about the individual. Its about respect, its about equality and judging someone on their merit and a handshake.
Its about the concept of respect, for both the past, the present, and the future. Its about saving for a rainy day...
Its about neighbors helping neighbors, its about minding your own business. its about hardwork and fair pay. Its about doing the right thing.
Its about leading by example.
Its about constant improvement and finding a better way....and always seeking the best over the second best.
Its not about winning or losing but rather how one plays the game. Its not about being a bully but walking quietly with a big stick.
Conservatives recognize the worth of every man and the potential of a free and just society. It also recognizes that our country was founded on compromise and respect for those who one disagrees with.
Realistically, it is every Barack Obama portrays and against everything that George Bush was. Its not about "Mission Accomplished" or bragging about having political capital to spend. Its not about shock and awe and its definitely not about a Vice President who does not respect his office enough to honor its history but rather wants to redefine his position in the organizational line up.
Its about understanding that lots of companies hire employees under the label "part time" just to keep from paying holiday pay, fringe benefits, and unemployment...yet expecting full time hours from these employees; its absurd to deny these people unemployment insurance which only costs pennies on a dollar of labor up to a max of $8,000 dollars a year in payroll. Unemployment insurance never bankrupt a company...but stupid overpaid CEOS have...
A conservative is willing to say, "hey, if healthcare costs are too expensive and making our companies uncompetitive then is there something we can do as a nation to solve this problem?"
Pushing the costs off on employees is not the answer especially when companies can write off 100% of the cost and employees on a fraction of the cost.
Like Barry Goldwater said once when asked about allowing gays in the military, "...can they shoot straight?"
That pretty much sums it up....
"Conservatives have never really had a leader or a spokesman"
That may be the other reason besides a catchy name that "Conservatism" was hijacked by neocons and those that put greed before love and service to Country.
My offer still stands TAO. You want run I can get a few days off to help.
The recent decline of the Republican Party is due to a leadership void. President Bush was mostly MIA during his second term. New leaders are emerging. Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin will be the new faces of the Republican Party.
Sarah Palin as leader? You must be wanting the republican party to die more than Truthicle Intel 335.
Reagan's legacy is enhanced by the party because, yes, they don't really have anyone else in recent memory to attach to. He certainly wasn't bad in my opinion, but he was far from the near-perfect president he's being portrayed as recently. His problem was, he wasn't Reagan enough.
I believe conservatism died under the supervision of George W. Bush. Conservatives willingly defended everything Bush did and when the president became discredited, so were the conservative apologists. Rank-and-file conservatives, by virtue of the neoconservative take-over of the party, became apologists for imperialism and runaway spending. I have far more contempt for the neocons in the Republican party than I do for honest liberals in the Democratic party.
All that said, I'm still interested in calling myself conservative for the time being. There is plenty of reason to desire a different term, and considering so many conservatives defended Bush for absolutely everything, many today are led to believe that Bush = conservative.
My favorite political online magazine is takimag.com, which bills itself as an "independent conservative magazine" and some of its writers call themselves the "alternate right," a term meant to differentiate themselves from the "National Review" and Fox News crowd that has lately been defining conservatism. Unfortunately, "alternate right" is a somewhat empty term when initially stumbled upon.
My favorite print journal is "The American Conservative," a bi-weekly founded in 2002 in order to oppose the Iraq invasion from a right-wing perspective. In fact, the Washington Post once declared that the publication that is the most "anti-Bush" was not the New York Times or New Republic, but The American Conservative.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the party at large isn't really doing or saying anything different from when Bush was president. They are wallowing around in the minority while whining about things the Democrats are doing which the GOP would be doing themselves if they were in power.
In 2012, they will likely nominate someone who will bill themselves as different from Bush, but will end up articulating an agenda that is little different. How depressing.
It depresses me that a man of your obvious intellect and sense of decency isn't in the Democratic Party Carl. Kind of like TAO. You two are welcome anytime.
Heh heh, thanks for the offer. Unfortunately for you, I am more likely to switch to the Libertarian or Constitution Party. However, I would not rule out voting for certain Democrats if the circumstances were right. For example, if I lived in South Carolina last year, I would have voted for the rather conservative Democrat Bob Conley over McCain lap-dog Lindsey Graham in the U.S. senate race.
Interesting.
Far from 'kidnapped' RR was, his entire career, in service to the rich and powerful.
"Mouthpiece' is as good a place as any to start when describing just what it was RR did all those years.
Mediocre actor elected President of the Screen Actors Guild who became a 'friendly witness' at HUAC hearings. Clashing with 'commies' in the guild. Protege of Lew Wasserman, the most powerful man in Hollywood. Spokesman for GE. Red-baiting governor of California in thrall to big energy and big agriculture while playing to the average Joe beating up on college students, migrant workers and pitching his 'Right to Life' bona fides while eager to reinvigorate capital punishment in California
Etc. Etc.
Allegedly at one time an FDR liberal Democrat who morphed into the hope of 'Conservatives' without, apparently ever being one his own self.
He was an interesting man.
Personally I owe Reagan a very great deal. Thanks to RR I stopped watching televised news in 1981. I found his delivery so annoying, so transparently false I couldn't bear to watch him recite his lines. And RR speaking was, even more so than GWB, all about reciting lines. And very successfully as it turns out. But he did save me countless hours I might otherwise have spent in front of the television. And allowed me to discover all sorts of other ways to waste time.
Cheers!
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