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I would summit that all REAL conservatives are on the fringe. It is fringe to suggest that Social Security should be abolished, but that is the only REAL conservative position. It is fringe to suggest that Medicare should be abolished, but that is the only REAL conservative position. It is fringe to suggest that the income tax should be abolished and replaced with nothing, but it is the only REAL conservative position. And people on both sides of this argument should quit fretting about Israel and Palestine because the only REAL, small government conservative position is nonintervention and non-entaglement, and we should give neither side one dime of foreign aid and mind our own business.

You guys live in a delusional happy little world where the GOP is conservative and good and the Dems are liberal and bad, but the truth is one is the party of outright social democracy and the other is the party of slightly less social democracy. If you are OK with being a mainsteamer content with arguing over degrees of social democracy, then have at it. I will continue to work on the fringe over here and try to actually bring about some REAL conservative change.

Sorry for the late date of this reply. I was alerted to this thread in an e-mail group.

If you chose to reply, it would be nice for you to explain to me how there can be any conservative position on the issues above short of the ones I suggested. Instead of just something along the lines of "ha ha ha you're on the fringe ha ha ha."

Using words like 'delusional' describing those differing with your viewpoint(s) gets you nowhere insofar as persuading someone of your stance. Further, acting is if you're somehow the arbiter of 'REAL' conservatism is a bit grandiose, don't you think? The platform you describe as REAL conservatism sounds suspiciously like the Libertarian platform. How many major elections have Libertarians won? Oh, I remember now: none. How many policies do they influence? None again.

You also wrote, "because the only REAL, small government conservative position is nonintervention and non-entaglement, and we should give neither side one dime of foreign aid and mind our own business."

The primary purpose of government is to protect its people and their interests. We support Israel because it is simply the morally and strategically right thing to do to bolster the only real representative democracy in an otherwise volatile, authoritarian region. We give out foreign aid dimes because money equals influence, and it is in our national interest to ensure--as much as we can--a Middle East willing to hear us out, if not bend to our will. Head-in-the-sand, isolationist policies have proven wrongheaded in the past. So by all means, stay on the fringe, without power or voice. I like you out there.