Conservatives Can Unite Around the Constitution

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/2/2008 | Peter Berkowitz

[GVnana]

Conservatives Can Unite Around the Constitution

The coalition that supported Reagan is as viable as ever.

After their dismal performance in November, conservatives are taking stock. As they debate the causes that have driven them into the political wilderness and as they contemplate paths out, they should also take heart. After all, election 2008 shows that our constitutional order is working as designed.

The Constitution presupposes a responsive electorate, and respond the electorate did to the vivid memory of a spendthrift and feckless Republican Congress; to a stalwart but frequently ineffectual Republican president; and to a Republican presidential candidate who -- for all his mastery of foreign affairs, extensive Washington experience, and honorable public service -- proved incapable of crafting a coherent and compelling message.

Indeed, while sorting out their errors and considering their options, conservatives of all stripes would be well advised to concentrate their attention on the constitutional order and the principles that undergird it, because maintaining them should be their paramount political priority.

A constitutional conservatism puts liberty first and teaches the indispensableness of moderation in securing, preserving and extending its blessings. The constitution it seeks to conserve carefully defines government's proper responsibilities while providing it with the incentives and tools to perform them effectively; draws legitimacy from democratic consent while protecting individual rights from invasion by popular majorities; assumes the primacy of self-interest but also the capacity on occasion to rise above it through the exercise of virtue; reflects, and at the same time refines, popular will through a complex scheme of representation; and disperses and blends power among three distinct branches of government as well as among federal and state governments the better to check and balance it. ..

[GVnana]

The Constitution and the nation that has prospered under it for 220 years demonstrate that conserving and enlarging freedom and democracy depends on weaving together rival interests and competing goods.

[weegee]

We can rally around it but Barack is already on record (audio) talking about how it is a flawed document that does not consider the issues of economic and social justice.

B.O. does NOT want a blind justice system. It is about Marxist redistribution of wealth. Welcome to America 2.0.

[SatinDoll]

I’m amazed that WSJ even printed this opinion piece. We dropped our subscription due to their editorial support for violating federal immigration laws (illegal aliens = no big deal!)

Supporting the Constitution means not picking and choosing which laws one decides to obey. Lawlessness results in a nation coming apart at the seams.

[EternalVigilance]

I’m amazed that WSJ even printed this opinion piece.

Why? The article is as squishy as they are.

[Wolfstar]

From the article:

Moreover, a constitutional conservatism provides a framework for developing a distinctive agenda for today's challenges to which social conservatives and libertarian conservatives can both, in good conscience, subscribe.

Although I largely agree with the article, I have one major disagreement.

There is no such thing as a "libertarian conservative." Libertarians essentially are people who want absolutely minimalist government while keeping some basic level of public order. A genuine libertarian is only a degree or two away on the political spectrum from being an anarchist.

In my opinion, the single biggest problem the conservative movement has is that there is no single, unifying political meaning of the term "conservative." If we don't even understand ourselves, how can we expect the general public to understand us?

However, I do agree with the article's emphasis on Constitutional conservatism, because I am a Constitutional conservative. Unfortunately, a religiously based point of view (primarily evangelical Protestant) dominates modern conservatism, and it is very intolerant of conservatives whose views are not religiously based.

[bravotu]

So Who Is The Face ?
The Voice in The Wilderness?
The Spirit of Our Founding Fathers?
Must the Blood Shed for This Nation Rise from The Ground ?
No Face, No Voice and No Spirit but What of The Blood?

[SERKIT]

It will be tough to rally around the Constitution when at least half of the supposed conservatives won’t even talk about the natural-born presidential requirement - or lift a finger to fight the issue.

[The Mayor]

Sure, run a primary against every RINO in congress. Take them out at the source and where they are most vulnerable.

[RWB Patriot]

http://www.robertringer.com/declaration-of-independence.html

http://www.robertringer.com/jeffersonian.html

[Wolfstar]

Thank you for the links. I will read the material closely later. On first blush though, my reaction is that Thomas Jefferson's main claim to political greatness (in constrast with his achievements outside of politics and government) is that he wrote the Declaration of Independence. He had absolutely no role in hammering out and writing the Constitution, because he was in France at the time it was written.

As president, Jefferson was the first to grow the reach and power of the federal government, particularly the presidency, in direct contravention of the Constitution.

[geologist]

For one thing ... we give up too easily. we want results and we want them without the hard work of convincing others. We wait for Rush or Sean H., Laura, etc. to do it. While they are great ... it isn't enough. Which is apparent.

Look around at our family members, friends, local politics, etc.

How can so many be deceived?

Because they believe they are correct in their basic ideas ... which were/are taught to them over and over everyday, in school, college, and our local TV News.

Even the majority of Russians (when they were being starved to death) believed Stalin would help them. They looked to Stalin for help.Millions deliberately starved by Stalin.

We know how well that turned out.

It is now the same. We have millions that have been taught biased education: they do not think or believe they are mistaken.

They are not open to hearing the truth.

It is a major battle: how are we going to counteract it, when ‘they’ (liberals/socialists/communists) are in control?

Really????????????
Consider union members, IE.

We have been too complacent for too long.

Never give up!

[Recovering_Democrat]

Conservatives and the Constitution are inseparable. Just like Liberals and Socialism.

[mysterio]

A genuine libertarian is only a degree or two away on the political spectrum from being an anarchist.

BS.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Republicans lost in November, not necessarily conservatives. :)

[Wolfstar]

It will be tough to rally around the Constitution when at least half of the supposed conservatives won’t even talk about the natural-born presidential requirement - or lift a finger to fight the issue.

I am a Constitutional conservative who would be happy to fight this issue if there was any substance to it. To the best of my knowledge, there is zero substance. Why?

1. The State of Hawaii has made it clear there is a duly certified birth certificate on file for Obama.

2. The U.S. Constitution does not require a candidate for president to produce a birth certificate, and Hawaii law does not treat birth certificates as public documents.

As someone who respects states rights, and who values common sense, the above points rule for me on this matter.

[weegee]

Regardless of the birth certificate issue, people are unwilling to press Obambi on getting 1/3 of his record setting campaign contributions from FOREIGN contributors.

[weegee]

Divorce procedings are also private matters. It was Barack Obama who forced the courts to unseal Jack Ryan’s divorce papers and leaked them to the press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_(Senate_candidate)

Jack Ryan (born circa 1960) is a Republican from the state of Illinois who was forced to withdraw from the 2004 United States Senate race due to an alleged sex scandal involving his relationship with his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan. [1][2] His eventual replacement Alan Keyes would go on to lose the general election to Barack Obama, who would eventually be elected President of the United States on November 4, 2008.

Ryan hoped to succeed retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald in the United States Senate. On March 16, 2004, he won the Republican primary, thus pairing him against Democrat Barack Obama. However, after his divorce records containing damaging allegations were unsealed and made public, he withdrew his candidacy on June 25, 2004, and officially filed the documentation to withdraw on July 29, 2004.

[Wolfstar]

BS.

Not BS at all. A genuine libertarian wants the most minimalist government possible without sacrificing civic order. Anarchy is absence of government. True minimalism and absence are only a couple of degrees apart.

The Libertarian Party's stance on illegal immigration is a good case in point. The following is a verbatim excerpt from the Libertarian Party website:

...our system offers no legal channel for anywhere near a sufficient number of peaceful, hardworking immigrants to legally enter the United States even temporarily to fill this growing gap. The predictable result is illegal immigration.

In response, we can spend billions more to beef up border patrols. We can erect hundreds of miles of ugly fence slicing through private property along the Rio Grande. We can raid more discount stores and chicken-processing plants from coast to coast. We can require all Americans to carry a national ID card and seek approval from a government computer before starting a new job.

Or we can change our immigration law to more closely conform to how millions of normal people actually live.

When large numbers of otherwise decent people routinely violate a law, the law itself is probably the problem. To argue that illegal immigration is bad merely because it is illegal avoids the threshold question of whether we should prohibit this kind of immigration in the first place.

Personally, I identify significantly with libertarian points of view. I just don't go as far toward minimalism as they do.

[Wolfstar]

Divorce procedings are also private matters. It was Barack Obama who forced the courts to unseal Jack Ryan’s divorce papers and leaked them to the press.

Although the Ryan divorce papers matter has nothing whatsoever to do with the birth certificate matter, what the Obama campaign -- and the California judge who agreed with him -- did tp Jack Ryan was reprehensible in the extreme.

[353FMG]

>Conservatives and the Constitution are inseparable.<

That only means that there are no conservatives in government because none of its members have even brought up the question of Obama and his identity.