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STEYN: Is conservatism over?
Washington Times ^ | May 11, 2009 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 05/11/2009 3:33:27 AM PDT by Scanian

Well, of course it is. Everyone from James Carville to Colin L. Powell says so. "The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Mr. Powell told some group willing to pay him serious money to deliver this kind of incisive insight. "Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans want more government in their lives, not less."

Whether or not they want it, they're certainly going to get it. And, if you like big government now, just think how big it'll be once both parties are fully signed up to the concept. You'll recall that Mr. Powell voted for Barack Obama, coming out and publicly stiffing his "beloved friend" John McCain, after years of more discreetly stiffing (in leaks to Bob Woodward and others) his not-so-beloved colleagues in the Bush administration.

But, in fairness to the former secretary of state, his breezy endorsement of more government and more taxes is as near as we've ever got to a coherent political philosophy from him. If the Republican Party refuses to take his advice, I would urge him to run a third-party campaign on this refreshingly candid platform.

One of Mr. Powell's more famous utterances was his rationale, after the 1991 Gulf War, for declining to involve the U.S. military in the Balkans: "We do deserts, we don't do mountains." Actually, by that stage, the U.S. barely did deserts. The first President Bush's decision, at Mr. Powell's urging, not to topple Saddam Hussein but to halt the coalition forces at the gates of Baghdad sent the world a message about American purpose whose consequences we live with to this day.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatism; marksteyn; steyn
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"A resilient philosophy that scales mountains"
1 posted on 05/11/2009 3:33:28 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Scanian
[Powell's] breezy endorsement of more government and more taxes is as near as we've ever got to a coherent political philosophy from him. If the Republican Party refuses to take his advice, I would urge him to run a third-party campaign on this refreshingly candid platform.

LOL!

2 posted on 05/11/2009 3:36:43 AM PDT by livius
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To: All

These Freepathons are taking longer. If everybody would contribute, they would not. The conservative movement needs FR.


3 posted on 05/11/2009 3:42:29 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Liberals wouldn't just free Barrabas, they would elect him to represent them.)
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To: livius
The present system is stacked against third-parties and Steyn (or to use his American Indian name, "Sounds-Like-Pingpong-Ball-Stuck-in-Throat") knows this. Until you have a proportional Electoral College, third-parties will invariably wither and die, thanks to the "Demopublican" party running the show. Steyn also equates the GOP with conservatism, a dangerous mistake. One problem that conservatism (as opposed to the GOP) which Steyn does point out, is that there are many kinds of "conservatism"; parenthetically, there is but one kind of liberalism. That's why you don't see the infighting in liberalism that you do in the conservative movement. How we square this circle, I don't know.
4 posted on 05/11/2009 3:42:55 AM PDT by seatrout (I wouldn't know most "American Idol" winners if I tripped over them!)
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To: Scanian

“So I have no great regard for Mr. Powell’s strategic thinking, at home or abroad. As the general sees it, the Republican Party ought to be a “big tent.” Right now, the tent is empty, with only a few “mean-spirited” and “divisive” talk-radio hosts chewing the limbs off live kittens while gibbering to themselves.”

Lines like this is why I adore Mr. Steyn.


5 posted on 05/11/2009 3:44:19 AM PDT by autumnraine (Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose- Kris Kristoferrson)
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To: Scanian

The Sheeple need to be reminded every time that socialism doen’t work. The siren song of getting everything free suckers in the stupid. When the bill comes due they want out. It’s depressing that it has to come to this but, every time the people get in trouble, they realize the conservative are right.


6 posted on 05/11/2009 3:50:37 AM PDT by muir_redwoods ( O.B.A.M.A. = One Big Asinine Mistake, America)
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To: Scanian

If Conservatism is over then why is there such a big following on talk radio and the internet? If Conservatism is finished then how is it the number of tea parties are increasing both in frequency and size to stop BO and his socialist minions moving us towards socialism?


7 posted on 05/11/2009 3:51:35 AM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
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To: Man50D

If Conservative is over, why do I usually see the comments on the MSM sites run almost entirely against the Leftist POV?


8 posted on 05/11/2009 4:18:49 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: knews_hound

Steyn Ping


9 posted on 05/11/2009 4:25:55 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: Scanian

Yes! true conserativism has disappeared...what we have is varying degrees of liberalism....right, center,and left liberals...


10 posted on 05/11/2009 4:26:43 AM PDT by thinking
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To: Scanian

“The first President Bush’s decision, at Mr. Powell’s urging, not to topple Saddam Hussein but to halt the coalition forces at the gates of Baghdad sent the world a message about American purpose whose consequences we live with to this day.”

Obviously one of the greatest strategic mistakes that I have seen in my 64 years.
I just NEVER understood it.
Mark nails it.


11 posted on 05/11/2009 4:34:18 AM PDT by AlexW (Now in the Philippines . Happy not to be back in the USA for now.)
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To: Scanian

I’m Barack Obama and I apporove of this message:Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans want more government in their lives.


12 posted on 05/11/2009 5:05:57 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: AlexW
I just NEVER understood it.

Fairly simple. The UN and coalition war aim was to drive Saddam out of Kuwait. Had Saddam been dethroned, we would have had something similar to the insurgency of 2005 to 2007, just 15 years earlier.

This would have resulted in the immediate collapse of the coalition, and we would likely be talking today of how the overreach of Bush Senior was a great strategic mistake. We absolutely did not want to conquer and occupy Iraq at that time.

IOW, extremely limited war aims was a precondition of creating a large diverse coalition. If you don't want limited war aims and the consequent restrictions, avoid coalition warfare.

13 posted on 05/11/2009 5:09:46 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: AlexW
If you believe some it is because of the Bush families real hunt for the Stargate. Saddam just played into their hand.
14 posted on 05/11/2009 5:26:09 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit)
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To: Scanian
From the article:
Over in the other [Democrat] tent, they celebrate diversity with ruthless singlemindedness: In the Democrat parade, whatever your bugbear government is the answer. Government is the means, government is the end, government is the whole magilla. That gives them a unity of purpose the Republican Party can never match.

And yet and yet.... Last November, even with the Republican Party's fiscal profligacy, even with the financial sector's October surprise, even with a cranky old coot of a nominee unable to articulate any rationale for his candidacy or even string together a coherent thought on the economy, even with a running mate subjected to brutal character assassination in nothing flat, even running against a charming, charismatic media darling of historic significance, even facing the natural cycle of a two-party system the washed-up loser no-hoper side managed to get 46 percent of the vote.

Bears repeating!
15 posted on 05/11/2009 5:28:22 AM PDT by Zakeet (Thou Shalt Not Steal -- Unless thou art the government)
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To: Zakeet

It bugbears repeating!


16 posted on 05/11/2009 5:32:35 AM PDT by MortMan (Power without responsibility-the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages. - Rudyard Kipling)
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To: Scanian

BTTT! Thanks for the smackdown of Colin Powell while subbing for Rush last week, Mark.


17 posted on 05/11/2009 5:38:43 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Sherman Logan; AlexW
"..avoid coalition warfare."

Correct in a nutshell.

Alex, you should remember under what authority any of this occurred; the United Nations.

Like most other endeavors sponsored by the U.N., there was never any specified goal of "winning".

18 posted on 05/11/2009 5:46:50 AM PDT by Designer (We are SO scrood!)
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To: Scanian

This piece wasn’t that well written. This isn’t Steyn at his best. This is probably because he isn’t a natural born American that he doesn’t see it.

Steyn gets the premise of conservatism wrong. Conservatism is not a coalition. It is not a collection of interest groups. While some issues are ‘hotter’ than others to different people, like the Second Amendment is ‘hotter’ to people than say cutting taxes, all of it is rooted in the American mythos from which this ‘heat’ springs. Activists for the Second Amendment as well as those wanting to cut taxes literally believe they are arguing the American Revolution ideas in twenty first century ways.

Conservatism is the conserving of the foundation of America. It is timeless because life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are timeless.

One of the reasons for Reagan’s popularity was not so much the conservative ‘movement’, in political terms, but in American mythos (people instinctively distrust ‘movements’, liberal, conservative, or whatever). Reagan clearly loved America, called it the ‘shining city on the hill’, and that warmth for America hit people’s hearts. Most Americans, even to this day, love their country with that intense pride. And yes, they still do, just look at the reaction to 9-11.

Obama has two massive weaknesses. One is that he is not a grassroots politician. He won all his early elections by throwing the opposing candidate out of the race. The later candidates, like Hillary Clinton and john McCain, which he could not throw out, were the most mediocre candidates he could be faced against. (Come on! Hillary Clinton? And he struggled to beat even those two)

But the second, even more glaring weakness, is that Obama does not love America. While he wraps himself in the flag during the election and all, which is standard stuff for politicians, he is on extremely thin ice because he will be blown away by any opposing candidate who radiates a love of country, a love for the American mythos.

Steyn should realize that America, unlike other nations, does not consider its founding to be its government. July the Fourth is not celebrating the adoption of the Constitution, it is celebrating the signing of Independence.

Americans love their country. They fear their government. This is believed by people of both parties. In no other nation on the Earth do people seperate their country and their government in quite the same way. The first lines of Paine’s “Common Sense” begins with highlighting this point.

Obama’s obsession about Reagan is really about the American mythos. Americans rejected The Great Society and LBJ, after winning a massive landslide electio of around 40 states, couldn’t even run for re-election. The point is that the ‘Reagan Revolution’, that rejection of big government, occurred well before Reagan.

The thing conservatives and liberals do not understand why FDR was ‘adored’ has nothing to do with FDR’s politics or even the ‘New Deal’. FDR knew how to speak. He had an orator’s flair. Many of his phrases have become legendary and have transcended politics. The political disccusisons have everyone focused on statecraft when it is stagecraft that people remember. JFK and Reagan also transcended the political process as their lines have become legendary.

The least known fact about FDR is that he was the ‘failed candidate’ who was the Vice President candidate in the 1928 election. Senator Hoover won by one of the biggest landslides in American history, 60+ % I believe. Yet, FDR came back an election later stronger than ever. Much of it was due to the economics at the time, but it was also due to FDR wearing the mantle of American mythos.

Obama is the twenty first century Hoover. He is the plucky senator elected. The bet that Axelrod is betting is based on a flawed premise: that FDR got loved because of economic bad times. No, he was elected because of economic bad times (and Republicans retook Congress after the ‘depression within the depression’ which Americans blamed FDR for). FDR is loved only because he wore the mantle of American mythos. “Nothing to fear but fear itself,” and so on.

The bet of the Obama administration is that people will equate economic bad times with the failure of capitalism. No wonder the Tea Parties scared them. But no one equates economic failure to the failure of freedom. Not even liberal bastions such as California to New England. What happens is that the people pack up and move elseware. They abandon their state and go to another state because they correctly see the failure of the government there.

Historically, Palin is poised to be the new FDR. She wears the American mythos mantle so openly which is why she is so loved (and by all. More people tuned in to the VP debate and her SNL skit than anything else.) Her life fits the American mythos of frontier woman and all. No member of the political class, Republican or Democrat, can stand up to that.

As with all things in cycles, a depression is coming. Social Security and Medicare will crash. But no one will blame capitalism because they aren’t blaming capitalism now. No one is moving TO California or Michigan because of government there. They are moving away. As polls show, more people fear the government getting too big than anything else.

Everyone will blame Obama for it because Obama has fingerprints on everything and is making sure everyone knows it. And unlike Hoover, Obama will definately deserve some of the blame. Mainstream press won’t be able to stop it because if things are bad now, they will be completely out of business when things really get bad. People will tire of Obama’s stagecraft because people tire of every president’s stagecraft after years of it. The only ones they don’t are those who wear the American mythos mantle. Obama doesn’t. FDR did. Reagan did.

And so does Palin. And that is the true source of her political invincibility... and inevitability. Obama won mostly due to the woman’s vote. A female presidential candidate would be extremely difficult to defeat. She must be taken out now because, from the moment she runs, like an avalanche, she will only gain in strength (as is shown by the few American mythos politians).


19 posted on 05/11/2009 5:47:28 AM PDT by Aquabird
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To: AlexW
Obviously one of the greatest strategic mistakes that I have seen in my 64 years. I just NEVER understood it. Mark nails it.

At last, my wife and I have always tried to figure who's decision that was or who suggested it that caused us to jump up from our chairs when they stopped short of killing that dictator screaming at the TV "Our youngest son will be fighting those people somewhere down the road you idiots!!"

And so it came to pass, he has fought almost 2 1/2 years in Iraq, now we know what POS started that. We no longer supported GHW Bush after that either.

And as a footnote, when "W" labeled that cult "the religion of peace" we immediately knew how flawed his thinking was, and we don't even have degrees from some Ivy League college, just working folks. Mark Steyn is outstanding.

20 posted on 05/11/2009 6:09:58 AM PDT by brushcop (SFC Sallie, CPL Long, LTHarris, SSG Brown, PVT Simmons KIA OIF lll&V, they died for you, honor them)
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