Posted on 11/08/2008 11:40:01 PM PST by Nachum
Let us bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Our 28-year conservative opportunity to fix the moral and practical boundaries of government is gone--gone with the bear market and the Bear Stearns and the bear that's headed off to do you-know-what in the woods on our philosophy.
An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since Ronald Reagan was elected. And where is the world we promised these children of the Conservative Age? Where is this land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque? It lies in ruins at our feet, as well it might, since we ourselves kicked the shining city upon a hill into dust and rubble. The progeny of the Reagan Revolution will live instead in the universe that revolves around Hyde Park.
Mind you, they won't live in Hyde Park. Those leafy precincts will be reserved for the micromanagers and macro-apparatchiks of liberalism--for Secretary of the Department of Peace Bill Ayers and Secretary of the Department of Fairness Bernardine Dohrn. The formerly independent citizens of our previously self-governed nation will live, as I said, around Hyde Park. They will make what homes they can in the physical, ethical, and intellectual slums of the South Side of Chicago.
The South Side of Chicago is what everyplace in America will be once the Democratic administration and filibuster-resistant Democratic Congress have tackled global warming, sustainability, green alternatives to coal
and oil, subprime mortgage foreclosures, consumer protection, business oversight, financial regulation, health care reform, taxes on the "rich," and urban sprawl. The Democrats will have plenty of time to do all this because conservatism, if it is ever reborn, will not come again in the lifetime of anyone old enough to be rounded up by ACORN and shipped to the polling booths.
None of this is the fault of the left. After the events of the 20th century--national socialism, international socialism, inter-species socialism from Earth First--anyone who is still on the left is obviously insane and not responsible for his or her actions. No, we on the right did it. The financial crisis that is hoisting us on our own petard is only the latest (if the last) of the petard hoistings that have issued from the hindquarters of our movement. We've had nearly three decades to educate the electorate about freedom, responsibility, and the evils of collectivism, and we responded by creating a big-city-public-school-system of a learning environment.
Liberalism had been running wild in the nation since the Great Depression. At the end of the Carter administration we had it cornered in one of its dreadful low-income housing projects or smelly public parks or some such place, and we held the Taser gun in our hand, pointed it at the beast's swollen gut, and didn't pull the trigger. Liberalism wasn't zapped and rolled away on a gurney and confined somewhere until it expired from natural causes such as natural law or natural rights.
I sleep well at night, even if my votes are “pointless”.
It’s the principle of the thing.
I’d be willing to bet that you feel the same way, too....:)
Once again, you make the most cogent point. Bravo!
By electing real leaders in all walks of life.
Yes. That little aspect of the RR legacy is seldom acknowledged. I clearly recall thinking back then, “This is not going to work out well.”
The same thing was said after 76 as well. The democrats have a full plate the next 4 years. The people who voted, voted for change and for the first black president.
Little did they know they were welcoming Jimmy Carter II.
HOpefully it pays off equally great electoral dividends for conservatives as did Jimmy Carter.
The problem is that the party has betrayed the fiscal conservatism, which along with strong defense, garnered support among those who weren’t strong social conservatives. With the loss of fiscal conservative principles, the party now just looks like Democrats with a different social agenda.
That’s exactly correct. Limited government needs to make a comeback.
There’s a story in the Bible where the Israelites were complaining about only getting manna to eat. They wanted meat, manna was boring, bla bla,bla. So God sends them a flock of birds, thousands and thousands of them. They cook the birds, have a feast, and they stuff themsleves until bird meat is coming out of their noses. They get sick on bird meat.
America, you want a liberal? You want big government? You want a control freak in DC?
HERE YA GO. BEND OVER!
In my opinion, limited government will be popular in the future.
In a leftist, totalitarian government, they can hold on for decades, or even generations. Look at the muslim arab countries, North Korea, Cuba, and Zimbabwe. All the "leaders" have to do is shut down outside influences, like a free press (which we need to face, is for the most part, now nothing more than a propaganda wing of the newly elected leftist government), education (how the hell did "we" allow people like Bill Ayres into the institutions of learning, allowing him to shape our education system?!?!), and then focus their hatred somewhere else.
Actually, it's pretty easy to do. Just distract the masses with "shiny objects." Bad guys have been doing it for centuries.
Mark
We who voted in the RINOs, instead of standing by our principles. Voting for a RINO is what I now consider the height of irresponsibility. WE voted them into office under the mistaken premise WE could influence their liberalist ideals.
I will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils. It is that voting behavior that got us here. If we are in so much denial as to not be able to see that...then woe is us. I have drawn my line in the sand. If they are not fiscal and social conservatives they do no represent me, nor will they have my vote.
If we want the Republican Party back on track, then WE have to toss out those that do not adhere to the principals, no more RINOs.
Obama will go down in history as the POTUS who presided over American political and financial failure.
Within 3 years he will be the scourge of all Americans.
My 7th grade daughter came home from her very conservative leaning school on Weds and said the topic at lunch was “Did we make God mad?”
Even middle schoolers feel this.
They will eventually realize, if they haven't already, that they will have to seize ALL liquid assets and go totally what I call 'postal socialism'. Retirement accounts will be seized and 'credited' with government scrip in the form of a pittance recognition on your social security check. Ownership of anything valuable will be a thing of the past.
I spoke with my retirement adviser last week (of a very well capitalized company) and he confided to me that most people don't really know how terribly dire the financial situation is in this country.
At some point the only strategy is to push their agenda to its ridiculous maximum. For instance, Gay Marriage. Sooner or later it will happen because they won’t stop until they get what they want. They never do. I am ready to say, fine and I raise you one. No marriage at all. The left has already ruined the institution. It is not assumed that people living together are married anyway, even if they have several children. People get married when they are 8 months pregnant and do the whole “big wedding” thing. So just do away with it. Who needs “government sanctioning” for a private matter anyhow? And that is the wedge...getting government out of your life and starting with marriage. Go ahead and get married, but it is private and there are no government benefits offered for being married...there! Now we are all equal and have taken away their vicitim issue. Sounds crazy, I know.
The South Side of Chicago is what everyplace in America will be. NOW THIS IS TRUTH IN JOURNALISM!
btt
“But his piece reflects the split within the conservative movement....”
Thanks for pointing out the major problem(s) with this piece. I read it and found it to be more of “the problem” and not so much “the solution”.
We’ve got to appreciate how the dems stick together. I don’t remember anyone (on the left anyway) blaming Gore’s loss on Lieberman or throwing John Edwards under the bus. But that is what our side is doing now with Palin.
I mean, for crying out loud, just on purely cynical grounds, regardless of what you think of her, even if you think she’s awful, why attack her a popular 44 year old, why? To save the reputation of John McCain? Is he ever going to run again? Love him or hate him, his reputation is secure.
The Palin-bashing by our own side has disheartened me more than the Obama win. We will NEVER advance if we are eating our own. And that is what this O’Rourke piece advocates, just more eating of our own,
(There! You thought I got totally off-topic, but I brought it back around.)
A system, where we are headed, where 30% of the people pay to support 70% of the people is not sustainable. It might take 20 years, but it WILL collapse. Of course, it is likely to be replaced by a third-world type of dictatorship with different factions fighting over who has the biggest pile of rubble.
Like the European Jews of the 1930's. And like them, most of us will hope for the best and do nothing.
Just biding my time 'til my cattle car rolls in.
Bingo. "Moderate" Republicans demanded (and were given) carte blanche opportunity to demonstrate, once and for all, that they knew how to win at the national level, this year.
They got exactly the candidate they wanted. They got exactly the party platform they demanded. The campaign was run exactly the way they insisted it be run.
How'd that end up working out for us, again...?
They actually managed to lose to a one-term Senate Marxist with open and unapologetic terrorist ties. The ONLY thing I want to hear from Team McCain or any of its shrill little online apologists, from this day forward, is a meek and contrite: "We're sorry."
They have nothing else worthwhile what. so. EVER. to contribute to any meaningful discussion, re: either conservatism or winning electoral strategies.
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