I recently heard a sound bite of Sarah Palin calling Barack Obama “Just another tax and spend Democrat.” I had to laugh because Palin’s claim is based on nothing. It has no factual basis. It’s just the standard dog and pony conservatives drag out when ever they talk about their Democratic opponents. It doesn’t matter or not if it’s true or even relevant to the conversation, it only matters that Plin said it, and now it’s out there to be picked up and repeated again, and again, in the media. Palin’s remarks, and the recent meltdown of the financial markets, though, got me thinking about what it supposedly means to be a conservative. The conservatives say the same things over and over, but they are hardly ever challenged on the validity of their statements.
The small government, fiscal conservative, does not exist and may never have existed. They have been replaced by the social conservative, neo-con. Yet conservatives continue with their same old saw about the Democrats raising taxes, enlarging the government, and spending money. Like Palin’s remarks, though, what they say, and what really is, are completely different things.
Conservatives talk constantly about smaller government, but that’s not what we have seen in the last eight years from them by any measure. Under the current administration and their allies in Congress, the US Government has exploded. The number of new, bloated, government bureaucracies, departments, agencies, and programs, has grown exponentially. We’ve also seen the Clinton surplus evaporate over night to be replaced by the largest deficit in US history. Is this fiscally conservative?
Conservatives talk about keeping the government out of our lives, yet under the current administration the governments ability to interfere in the daily lives of it’s criticizes is unprecedented. The Constitution, always held up as the conservative standard, has had its protections steadily eroded under this administration in the name of national security. In addition, the social conservative agenda has shone willingness for our government to interfere in its citizens most personal and intimate matters.
Conservatives deride nation building and intervention in other countries’ affairs, yet, under this administration, we have waged war on Iraq under dubious circumstances, and are now engaged there in nation building on a scale not seen since the end of the Second World War.
Conservatives love to talk about deregulation and letting the “Invisible Hand” work its magic in the market. When greed and poor insight, leads to the collapse of those markets, as we have recently seen, however, the conservatives are not so willing to be ruled by the “Invisible Hand.” They run to the government they hate so much with their hands out and the conservatives in government are only too willing to oblige, this time to the tune of 700 billion dollars. 700 billion dollars!!!
It is time for conservatives to own up to the mess that their Executive has created. Its time for them to be true to their “conservative ideals” or to denounce them and embrace the “neo-con ideals” that have ruled their party since the Republican revolution. It’s time for this campaign to be about ideas and not a series of pre-packaged sound bites. Don’t count on it though. From what we have seen so far, the same dog and pony are trotting into the ring.
The small government, fiscal conservative, does not exist and may never have existed. They have been replaced by the social conservative, neo-con. Yet conservatives continue with their same old saw about the Democrats raising taxes, enlarging the government, and spending money. Like Palin’s remarks, though, what they say, and what really is, are completely different things.
Conservatives talk constantly about smaller government, but that’s not what we have seen in the last eight years from them by any measure. Under the current administration and their allies in Congress, the US Government has exploded. The number of new, bloated, government bureaucracies, departments, agencies, and programs, has grown exponentially. We’ve also seen the Clinton surplus evaporate over night to be replaced by the largest deficit in US history. Is this fiscally conservative?
Conservatives talk about keeping the government out of our lives, yet under the current administration the governments ability to interfere in the daily lives of it’s criticizes is unprecedented. The Constitution, always held up as the conservative standard, has had its protections steadily eroded under this administration in the name of national security. In addition, the social conservative agenda has shone willingness for our government to interfere in its citizens most personal and intimate matters.
Conservatives deride nation building and intervention in other countries’ affairs, yet, under this administration, we have waged war on Iraq under dubious circumstances, and are now engaged there in nation building on a scale not seen since the end of the Second World War.
Conservatives love to talk about deregulation and letting the “Invisible Hand” work its magic in the market. When greed and poor insight, leads to the collapse of those markets, as we have recently seen, however, the conservatives are not so willing to be ruled by the “Invisible Hand.” They run to the government they hate so much with their hands out and the conservatives in government are only too willing to oblige, this time to the tune of 700 billion dollars. 700 billion dollars!!!
It is time for conservatives to own up to the mess that their Executive has created. Its time for them to be true to their “conservative ideals” or to denounce them and embrace the “neo-con ideals” that have ruled their party since the Republican revolution. It’s time for this campaign to be about ideas and not a series of pre-packaged sound bites. Don’t count on it though. From what we have seen so far, the same dog and pony are trotting into the ring.
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