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Brain-dead Conservatives
CATO ^ | 2009-10-04 | David Boaz

Posted on 01/01/2010 12:20:30 AM PST by rabscuttle385

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To: familyop

If George Washington was alive, anytime the last fifty years, and did what he did in his day, he’d be doing Federal time for corruption.

He was very self dealing, for the country, of course.


41 posted on 01/01/2010 4:38:07 AM PST by Leisler (We don't need a third party we need a conservative second party.)
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To: exnavy
"Conservative or flaming liberal, it will be open season on politicians."

Don't let a few good apples save a whole rotten barrel.

42 posted on 01/01/2010 4:40:18 AM PST by Leisler (We don't need a third party we need a conservative second party.)
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To: MrEdd
Moonbat David Boaz retreats into drooling straitjacket territory when he attempts to describe Bush the populist as a “Conservative”.

Really? GWB was pro life, pro military, anti-tax, anti-stem cell research/cloning, against gay marriage, a practicing Christian, and a devoted family man.

He also believed in the inherent goodness of America and its people, and did everything in his power to protect us. He treated allies with respect, and turned his back on trash like Arafat. He hunted the murderers of 9/11 down with a vengeance. When he committed troops to Iraq, he never wavered in his support. The Israelis consider him the most friendly American President since Reagan.

He was and still is reviled by liberals because he was so conservative. Anyone that doesn't consider him conservative, is wrong. He might not have been "conservative" enough to satisfy paultards, anarchists, or borderbots, but he was very conservative in any honest comparison.

I agree Boaz is a moonbat...he supports gay marriage, legalization of drugs, and is anti military.

43 posted on 01/01/2010 4:45:04 AM PST by A.Hun (Common sense is no longer common.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Whew! Lots of word games. I do like the idea of an open season on politicians, and I will do anything possible to put Sarah or “a Sarah” wherever she wants to go to set the charges and push the plunger on boat anchors like the National Department of Education. If we could create enough open space in the District of Corruption, we might be able to reestablish a constitutional republic.


44 posted on 01/01/2010 5:08:50 AM PST by JohnQ1 ("(BHO) can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - A Lincoln)
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To: Leisler; DakotaRed; Jim Robinson
Another major, gross failure of conservatives is their political lack of involvement. Most of, if not all, court fights and victories, few as there have been, on property rights and gun rights have been by libertarians, with libertarian money, and libertarian lawyers.

Zero, no, none, by ‘conservatives’.

What an absolute baseless bucket of excrement.

Not surprising, Leisler, since you give no reference, no data. (And, although I once worked with groups such as Libertarians for Life and the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, I'm beginning to lose any surprise when so-called "Libertarians" will write trash backed with nothing but their own hot air and based on either a very short memory without regard to history or fact and/or a lack of research into the subject and what has transpired in real life before their own interest.)

Do a little research on the Conservative efforts of the FreeMarket in Texas (our version of the Family Resource Council), The Justice Foundation (used to be the Texas Justice Foundation), the Christian Medical Association, and any number of pro-life organizations which have been forced to protect the right not to be killed, the right not to have liberty infringed upon by re-defining who is worthy of being given public protection (who is human enough).

And then, step back a bit and look at the lawsuits, activism, and plain ol' fights that those of us here on FR have been engaging with the left for the last 14 years or so. Jim Robinson is not a "(L)ibertarian," although he is capable of forming a coalition, to function in order to support common ground and common goals shared by some Conservatives and some (L)ibertarians.

Our efforts are often mistaken for those of (L)ibertarians, when in fact they are (l)ibertarian conservative (small government with unconditional protection of the right to life, liberty and property) and illustrate or take advantage of the common beliefsof Conservatives and some Libertarians.

45 posted on 01/01/2010 5:27:01 AM PST by hocndoc (http://www.LifeEthics.org (I've got a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it.))
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To: rabscuttle385

“Reagan stood for a limited constitutional government “

- - - in word, but not in deed.


46 posted on 01/01/2010 5:33:38 AM PST by RoadTest (Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3)
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To: rabscuttle385

>> Conservatism should make its peace with natural social change <<

OK. Fine.

But what — pray tell — is “natural” about homosexual marriage?

Or what is “natural” about mothers’ having their babies killed?


47 posted on 01/01/2010 5:34:49 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: rabscuttle385

“”Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic and power-adoring tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism;”

This is just not true. Conservatism, far from adoring power, maintains the less government the better, with more autonomy for the free market. And it in no way resembles Socialism!


48 posted on 01/01/2010 5:40:21 AM PST by RoadTest (Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3)
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To: rabscuttle385

“Conservatism should make its peace with natural social change”

Which is what? What is “natural social change”?


49 posted on 01/01/2010 5:43:39 AM PST by RoadTest (Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3)
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To: rabscuttle385
Conservatism should make its peace with natural social change, before it loses the entire younger generation,

What nonsense.

By this definition, we're being told that anything goes so long as the checkbook balances. That's not conservative, moral, or rational.

50 posted on 01/01/2010 6:07:39 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who support our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: hocndoc
"What an absolute baseless bucket of excrement"
Wow, very impressive. ( did I say something about conservatives not being able to handle ideas? Thanks for the first out of the box confirmation of my point.)

Anyways, and in FEDERAL COURTS,....

Kelo vs New London and the Washington gun ownership, both Libertarian.

Well, that was easy.

As much as I like FR, it's no CATO Institute, nor a Hoover. There's not a magazine that can touch REASON for pop, hipster, bi costal impact( Oh, yeah, I forgot, another field left to the left by conservatives.) Where's the conservative equal to The Freedman, Liberty, even the opinion page of the WSJ or IBD? Who's the conservative Any Rand?

Hey, I'm glad some group somewhere in some local court is shaking the cage, but let's get real. Conservatives and conservative institutions, unlike the libertarians, are not taking it to the left, on the lefts turf, as it were.

Frankly, Conservatives can't even prevail in the GOP. We know about the Big Gov, Big Tax, Big intervention Nanny State GOP, but....what does that tell you about conservative power, influence and ability to persuade...if it has been a doormat within the GOP for decades? Never mind outside the party and the nation at large.

51 posted on 01/01/2010 6:07:54 AM PST by Leisler (We don't need a third party we need a conservative second party.)
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To: CitizenUSA

“The truly brain-dead conservatives are those who think liberty can exist in a morally bankrupt society. You gotta have both liberty and individual morality.”

MAN, ICOULD NOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE !


52 posted on 01/01/2010 6:11:52 AM PST by aumrl (let's keep it real Conservatives)
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To: xzins

Besides, getting drunk, drugged and screwing is as old as any decayed empire. Nothing of personal, familial or societal importance is new under the sun.

( thanks to publik edjamaktion, hardly anyone knows what the idea of ‘fashion’ is. )

Conservatives lose the young because we gave up the schools, teaching....in short...the young. The old Jesuit dictum of giving the boy, picked up by Lenin and now captured by the left, has it’s price.

The future belongs to those that show up. Old dead people, conservative will not be there. Young people run through twenty years of leftist schools will have the future, a few exception aside.

Sorry, that’s the way it works. ( See the Netherlands and company where half the births are Muslim )


53 posted on 01/01/2010 6:14:32 AM PST by Leisler (We don't need a third party we need a conservative second party.)
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To: CitizenUSA

The truly brain-dead conservatives are those who think liberty can exist in a morally bankrupt society. You gotta have both liberty and individual morality. Some of the so-called conservative/libertarian (RINO) intellectuals are as removed from reality as the ivory tower leftists.

Exactly correct. Libertarianism, and especially the CATO Institute, are about as misguided and sick as Cass Sunstein and Barbara Boxer (and that is being kind to them).

Whether this article is a mole to intentionally emasculate conservatism, or is simply obtuse, one cannot know. I always wondered the same about GWB, claiming conservatism, was he really that obtuse?

But conservatism is NOT Libertarianism, it is rather responsibility, and willingness to assume such, by the individual citizen; hardly libertarianism.

We need a third or more party(s) to declare this publicly (Republicans refuse to), but Libertarianism is, like you say, as sinister as the LEFT in general.

Johnny Suntrade

54 posted on 01/01/2010 6:19:26 AM PST by jnsun (The Left: the need to manipulate others because of nothing productive to offer.)
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To: Billthedrill

Good comments and I appreciate the mention of Burke. He’s a pleasure to read.


55 posted on 01/01/2010 6:20:12 AM PST by GeorgeSaden
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To: rabscuttle385; Leisler; DakotaRed
I'm not sure whether you read the original "Is Conservativism Brain Dead?" by Hayward. If you did, you'd find that the author is somehow unaware of "intellectual" Conservative books.

I'd suggest that he, you, and Boaz read Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny. Go to Amazon.com and read the the first few pages.

56 posted on 01/01/2010 6:24:09 AM PST by hocndoc (http://www.LifeEthics.org (I've got a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it.))
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To: rabscuttle385

Many writers have repeated the remark about Hayek to wit that he was not a conservative. True, but Hayek added he wished modern conservatives would call themselves by some other name because they represented best his own views on politics and economics. He despised the “conservatives” of his youth who suppressed all economic activity and social progress for people who were not of the upper class. Hayek totally embraced American-style conservatism. Read his classic book “The Road To Serfdom” to better understand his views.


57 posted on 01/01/2010 6:41:05 AM PST by driftless2 (for long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: rabscuttle385

Any republican that is “acceptable” in the eyes of the media, (Specter - now a dem, McCain - mr maverick, Romney - the very mother of obamacare) is no Conservative at all.


58 posted on 01/01/2010 6:59:00 AM PST by InternetTuffGuy
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To: A.Hun
Ah so protecting the borders is not conservative? Please.
59 posted on 01/01/2010 7:05:04 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (usff.com)
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To: CitizenUSA

John Adams:

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”


60 posted on 01/01/2010 7:08:49 AM PST by algernonpj (He who pays the piper . . .)
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