Rejecting Modern Materialism: The Rise of the Crunchy-Conservatives

Catholic Exchange ^ | March 31, 2006 | Pete Vere JCL

[rob777]

You should run for office. I'll vote for you!





The problem with running for office is that there is a slight chance that I actually might win. If that should happen I would have to demand a recount. :-)

[little jeremiah]

We need citizen representatives, and might I suggest "no lawyers allowed"?

I've thought of running for something, I'd make a little handout outlining my previous checkered career so they wouldn't be able to dig up any dirt. I'd do it for them.

:-)

[rob777]

I'd make a little handout outlining my previous checkered career so they wouldn't be able to dig up any dirt. I'd do it for them.




Now that is a novel idea.

[rob777]

You should run for office. I'll vote for you!




Actually, I am currently serving as an issues adviser to a conservative candidate running in the GOP primary to fill Bernie Sanders' vacant U.S. House Seat from Vermont.

I write up small "White Papers" on the issues along with talking points. We later discuss the issues. The candidate's name is Mark Shepard and he is currently a Vermont State Senator. Mark is the real deal and is committed to preserving constitutionally limited government. I met him years ago when I was running a local group called "Citizens for Property Rights". We sponsored a seminar on the U.S. Constitution and invited someone from "The National Center for Constitutional Studies" to come and give the presentation. He showed a sincere interest in helping to promote the cause. That was before he got elected to the State Senate. I kept an eye on him to see if his passion for the cause would be dimmed by the pursuit of political power. Happily, it has not. Mark is giving up his Engineering business to run in this race and I am more than content to support people like him.

[little jeremiah]

I remember when VT used to be conservative. It's a beautiful place and I would like nothing better than to see it conservative again.

Me? No one would vote for me. Although I have given it thought. I'm a hermit guitar player, ultra conservative, states' rights, minority religion, pro-life, pro-traditional morality, herbalist, vegetarian.

Any constituency there?

[GOP_1900AD]

Good old fashioned British rural conservatism. It's a key source of inspiration for me. Not the only one, but a key one.

[GOP_1900AD]

I know we don't always agree but what you've written here is spot on. That is a really good problem statement. If the GOP, or even a wholely new party, were to embrace it, and use their platform to solve to it, they would win by a landslide.

[GOP_1900AD]

I think the real issue is that the typical corporate leader is a social liberal and an economic libertarian extremist. Those who aren't are out and out liberals. I know enough such people to feel pretty secure in that conclusion. As a result, since there is little left in terms of traditional non corporate leadership (e.g. church, family, state), these de facto leaders promote the corporatist version of bread and circuses. Most truly honest free market conservatives are far too plain spoken, direct and bullshyte intolerant to make it as execs of major corporations.

[GOP_1900AD]

Yep! ......

[GOP_1900AD]

You have highlighted one of my key issues with Paleo Con thinking. Isolationism is utopian idiocy. It might have worked in the days of sails and horses but with technology it was made obsolete.

[GOP_1900AD]

We could start by replacing the corporate dependent welfare states with real nation states.

[little jeremiah]

Yup. But IMO it's so far gone in every department that only some great cataclysm will change anything. Everything's so hardened into its current status, with so many entrenched people who benefit. And so many asleep, with mental novocain.