newper wrote:
FavreFan wrote:
newper wrote:
FavreFan wrote:
That doesn’t describe conservatives in my entire lifetime. Maybe you’re thinking of the past.
Yes, conservatives love private healthcare. They love higher taxes to fund government programs. Are you thinking about extra government intervention in intervening in other countries policies or perhaps extra government policies to begin the Space Force era?
It doesn’t matter what I think man. It’s an objective fact that in the last 30+ years “conservatives” or “republicans” have not advocated for limited government. Are you saying you disagree with that assertion?
Yes, I do. They would like their own government programs in place; I'm not disagreeing that they would like an abolishment of government (which would be closer to a libertarian viewpoint) but they would prefer things to mostly run on their own with gentle guidelines. I think you would agree that Trump would prefer to eliminate programs that bring immigrants to the US, as an example where other folks in the past have encouraged such programs. Conservatives generally speaking would like to limit spending, which results in a limited amount of services a government can provide. Cultural, ecological, and sociological programs are generally cut under conservative leadership. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, as I feel Chicago (and Illinois) can provide a pretty clear example of the drawbacks of not going the conservative route, but this seems to me to be the case nationally at least. Just to point to a single example, the fact that "conservatives" or "republicans" do not want nationalized healthcare seems to be an indicator of their desire to have limited government. And yet there are vast other issues, I agree, but that one seems to be fairly important right now.
The problem is that the ex-Dixiecrats and their kids who migrated to the GOP as part of Nixon's Southern Strategy are in favor of big government, as long as it's based on Jesus and guns and doesn't give minorities much of a chance.
So the idea of conservatism as say a Goldwater construct is heavily diluted. Reagan managed to avoid some of the excess by focusing a lot of it on the evil Soviets. Bush 1 and 2 both failed miserably at it, even though neither of them was an ex-Dixiecrat.
But guys like McConnell? Meh.
I've become more of a pragmatic centrist over the years because of the lack of intrastate commerce in large swaths of the economy, the way that federal tax-revenue-driven program funding from both parties has hijacked state initiative in many areas, and aversion to ex-Dixiecrat policies.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
