How about we hire Americans, at American companies, which make things for sale in America?As long as a profit can be made from doing that, sure. No profit, no incentive to do so.
I do think ethically minded capitalism can reduce poverty.I think so too. But I also think a lot of people aren't terribly ethically-minded on capitalism. Short-sighted vs long-sighted is the issue there.
I have railed to no great end on FR about the golden conservative unicorns that supposedly ride in vast herds throughout the American electorate.Much as I hate it, you're right there. The supposedly vast conservative mass that doesn't vote and doesn't speak are non-existent. The cities are liberal, the country is conservative, and the demographics speak for themselves. Still, we must do the best that we can to promote conservative ideas.
These guys are both from Robert Kagan's Project for a New Amercian Century which has since been rebranded to the Foreign Policy Institute. The more things change, the more they stay the same.That's the truth! It's the PNAC people who are responsible for the mess we got in under Bush, Jr. Those people literally thought all the Muslims would just throw flowers at us when we "liberated" them. Just more pollyanna crap.
I appreciate the detail and substance of your response.
I must admit I still disagree.
I still think there is a dimension to what I would term incremental conservatism that is not being properly thought out and defended here at FR.
I love President Bush. That is not to say I cannot imagine disagreements.
But frankly, I can think of more disagreements I actually had with Reagan.
We should be able to point to and affirm conservative things that I have happened in the past and say YES!
Those things should constitute an empirical basis for attracting people to current politics.
For example:
1. Government shutdown in the 1990s actually did work. It hurt Clinton— helped Gingrich and the Republicans. The Media of course lied about this. But there is no changing the 1995 SOTU by Clinton said “The era of big government is over” He got stopped cold by a thunderous standing ovation in the chamber while conservatives basically gave each other high fives for crushing hillary care and stopping the Clinton spending spree with the shutdown.
2. Republican senates have helped America as they did in the late 1990s. Republicans did bring down the deficit and poverty. Poverty went from 15% to 11% after Republicans CUT WELFARE. Conservatvies forced Clinton to sign welfare reform.
3. Bush did win three good wars against: the Taliban, Saddam, and Charles Taylor. He did serious damage to the Vietnam ethos that still controls our foreign policy. The surge in 2007 was successful. Pretending it was not only emboldens Obama and the other anti-american reactionaries that dominate foreign policy. And yes, ugly as it sounds— the Paulites ride along. Refusing to see the victories in our wars hurts our soldiers the most. We are not scoring political points when we sell them out and agree Bush was bad. Obama is giving all of this away— but we ought to acknowledge what we had and accomplished so our criticism can be meaningful.
If people disagree with particular policies then they should simply say so. I detest that people on FR HATE president Bush. I honestly don’t think people should hate each other at all but that is probably a bridge too far here.
The hate the person model discards all the good conservative accomplishments that people make. If we defend the conservative actions that did work then people will be attracted. That is always how it has worked.
The media and intellectual elite lie but the public can make its own counter arguments.