Conservatism is Dead; Long Live Conservatism

American Thinker ^ | February 14, 2008 | Selwyn Duke

[Lecie]

RE: Snake handling - Of course conservatives handle snakes and look at the results - hat bands, boots, belts, wallets, purses and some people even eat the damned things. RE Moonshine - We were way ahead of the curve on this one, too. Anyone who has seen the movie "Thunder Road" knows we were using "ethanol" before it became popular. I guess you could say - "We were ethanol before ethanol was cool".

[toddlintown]

And a third choice; You could watch Obama or Clinton sworn in next January while you nestle in your bed of principles.

[endthematrix]

Thank you Frankfurt School!

[ovrtaxt]

We might ask: With conservatives like President Bush and many of the other Republicans, who needs liberals?

Why, yes, we might.

[Rennes Templar]

We are a dying breed in a dying country.

[ovrtaxt]

You guys just won’t give up. Go ahead, keep cooperating with America’s destroyers, redefining the nation farther to the left every chance you get.

Some of us will remain over here with the Constitution and the Declaration, the plumblines of freedom. We will be judged by God and by history, remember.

[Cruz]

Excellent article

[Just mythoughts]

At this point it unless something else happens the majority of Americans will be voting for a SOSOS bought and paid for US President. There is no longer a distinction of ideologies we have finally become one.

[Just mythoughts]

At this point, unless something else happens the majority of Americans will be voting for a SOSOS bought and paid for US President. There is no longer a distinction of ideologies we have finally become one.

[Just mythoughts]

At this point, unless something else happens the majority of Americans will be voting for a SOSOS bought and paid for US President. There is no longer a distinction of ideologies we have finally become one.

[rodguy911]

Keep thinking like that its what the DBM/DNC is trying to get us to do, you fall right into their hands.

[rodguy911]

Keep thinking like that its what the DBM/DNC is trying to get us to do, you fall right into their hands.

[rodguy911]

Great post, many fall right into the DBM/DNC hands of its all our fault, but there are millions of us out there that do not and will not.

[Just mythoughts]

And a third choice; You could watch Obama or Clinton sworn in next January while you nestle in your bed of principles.

All three choices are SOROS bought and paid for candidates... We will be ONE come November.

[Just mythoughts]

Sorry ... proxy error ... was not my intent to post original two times... neither showed up on my screen so I tried again.

[ovrtaxt]

Some of us can still read and understand the words of our fathers, while others sell their own souls for thirty pieces of silver.

The globalists have maneuvered us into a lose/lose election. I’m waiting for the third choice to emerge.

[LowCountryJoe]

Then you have Newt Gingrigh out there saying the same thing and advocating a conservative separatist movement. The problem is, what Gingrich is proposing is really a plan to become more like populist Democrats -- Huckabee conservatives. I wrote the following in September on a different blog:

I took the opportunity to see Newt Gingrich (and some others) kick off his Solutions for America program which, for me, was moderately disappointing because of the large amount of populist drivel that was being pushed -- the largest applause lines were rhetoric concerning getting tough on illegal immigrants and allowing the teaching of God back in public schools while shrinking the size and scope of federal government and social security choice options garnered much less in comparison. This was in Atlanta, by the way.

Anyhow, just toward the tail end of the event, as Newt appeared as though his was wrapping up his speech, some guy from the audience in a suit (with clipboard and pen) stands up and says something that I couldn't quite hear. The gentleman repeats himself as the rest of the audience wonders just what in hell he's doing: "Mr. Speaker, will you be taking questions?". Newt, appearing not to have rehearsed this, basically tells the guy that, no, he's not going to be taking questions and that he's almost done with his speech. And then Newt says to the guy, after a short pause, "But I am going to be doing a book signing after the event, in the lobby, and you can catch up with me there."

I think that the guy was a plant, myself. I find myself susceptible to certain conspiracy theories whenever and wherever marketing is involved (and also at Vegas-style shows when weird 'random' events seem to happen with audience members being incorporated into the act somehow.

Will Newt run? I don't think so; he seems committed to bringing ordinary Democrats and ordinary Republicans (and everyone else, for that matter) to the table to propose solutions to America's biggest problems. I just have this feeling that the 'solutions' that people will come up with will rarely include allowing markets to facilitate optimal results.

No joke, at this event, the statements that garnered the least amount of applause...privatizing Social Security and limiting the size of government. What does that tell you about the state of conservatives? What does it tell you when the state of the Right has denigrated into perpetual pessimism; that people like Pat Buchanan can rail against capitalism being harmful and it gets traction; that somehow Romney and Huckabee (or, Coulter even sarcastically saying, Hillary) are more conservative than is McCain [Lord do I hate to defend McCain here but it is a legitimate gripe].

Conservatism, if really dead, is only dead because the people in the movement -- and not its leaders -- have embraced the idea of using government to achieve agendas and have instead rejected liberty.

When voters do this kind of thing, is it no wonder that the politicians will give the people what they want? Politicians pander and will deliver the goods that they believe their constituents want. And you know what, we're getting it! Republicans rejected Fred Thompson and Thompson believed he had to toughen his message on immigrants to make it as far as he did.

Nope, conservatism is not dead, classical liberalism is. If you doubt this and think that Reagan wasn't a classical liberal, then I really suggest you go and read (or re-read or listen to) his speeches. Liberty is what is dead. Conservatism lives...conservatism in its classical definition.

[LowCountryJoe]

I forgot the entire part about Gingrich sidling up to Democrats by soliciting their advice and having them give introduction and speeches at this event. Don’t forget, the ‘limited government’ Gingrich is one of the Medicare expansion’s biggest champions. What does that tell you?

[ovrtaxt]

Conservatism, if really dead, is only dead because the people in the movement -- and not its leaders -- have embraced the idea of using government to achieve agendas and have instead rejected liberty. When voters do this kind of thing, is it no wonder that the politicians will give the people what they want? Politicians pander and will deliver the goods that they believe their constituents want. And you know what, we're getting it!

Excellent post.