You know...while I was trying to understand YOU... I have to confess that you are a bit of a strange character. An unknown regardless of your long association with Free Republic. I wonder just where you are on most subjects - at this point.
From looking at your previous comments, I would suggest that you are a middle of the road Republican who supports McClain. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
With that, that means that you are NOT a conservative, but a moderate that is trying to belong here.. Where do you belong on the political spectrum - you get to decide?
On March 15, 2001, I quit the GOP after 30 years and became a democrat when Bush signed off on the Bankruptcy Reform Bill. I posted it here on FR. I thought the bad lenders were being unfairly protected at the cost of real human beings. I even channeled up Ayn Rand from the dead to do post about how lousy the bill was.
Now, 8 1/2 years later we have people like Karl Denninger saying the same thing. Someone asked me why I became a Republican in the first place and my answer was “ because George Wallace got shot.” So I am not some little screaming liberal. I could have been happy with Wallace and a Curtis LeMay type running mate.
Where I see the GOP, which I think has been devolved back to Neanderthalism by its economic Libertarian parasites, is where the liberals were back in the 60s and 70s. They had this little theory that if you just gave money to poor people, because we were a rich nation, that everything would work out just peachy. It was a warm and fuzzy thought and we shouldn’t get mad at them for having it.
What we should get mad at them about is when the illegitimate birth rate among blacks started increasing from the 20%s to the 30%s to the 40%s and still climbing (what about 70% today), the liberals should have woken up. They should have said, “Uh oh, maybe we miscalculated here. Let us revisit our original premise because this is clearly turning into a massive clusterf*ck. We are having children of welfare mothers getting on welfare with illegitimate children of their own.” But no. They could not confront their own flawed theory.
Same with the GOP. They had this little theory that if you just left the markets alone, they would properly regulate themselves, because we were a nation who believes in limited gov’t, and that everything would work out just peachy. It was also a warm and fuzzy thought and we shouldn’t get mad at them for having it. (Heck, I was a Republican then and I had it too)
What we should get mad at them about is when the bubbles started bursting and real wages didn’t keep up with the trickle down theory, and jobs started moving overseas, and the wealthiest Americans doubled or tripled their wealth while most average Americans were having to live on credit cards. The GOP should have woken up. They should have said, “Uh oh, maybe we miscalculated here. Let us revisit our original premise because this is clearly turning into a massive clusterf*ck. We have had an S&L bust, a LTCG bust which nearly took out the economy, a dot.com bust, etc. and clearly the markets can not regulate themselves properly. But no. They could not confront their own flawed theory.
So back to your question. Am I a moderate Republican? No. Technically I am a Democrat now out of disgust at my former party’s stupidity and “liberal-like” thinking, i.e. “let’s never confront our theory, it could never be wrong”. I am a conservative who believes the country is more important than pointy-headed libertarian twits. I am a conservative who is more progressive on the economic issues.
parsy, who hopes that answered your question