Since when do conservatives hate capitalism?

GOPUSA ^ | January 10, 2012 | Bobby Eberle

[americanophile]

What do conservatives stand for? What do conservatives believe in? Those seem like simple questions, and as a conservative, I can tell you exactly what I stand for and believe. The problem comes from what I'm hearing from our GOP presidential candidates who call themselves conservative. In their quest for the Republican nomination, it seems these "conservatives" will embrace any idea in order to attack another candidate. The latest is an assault on capitalism... yes, capitalism! What's next? Supporting higher taxes and bigger government?

As noted in a story on CNSNews.com, GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is under attack by his fellow opponents, namely Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry. Why, you ask? Because Romney ran Bain Capital, which would restructure and reorganize companies in order to make them profitable. In doing so, everything that would be involved in saving a company was on the table: selling assets, trimming work staff, modernizing... you name it.

Oh the horror of it all! Gingrich and Perry are blasting Romney for not relying on the government, not going for corporate bailouts, but rather, for handling corporate woes in the private sector.

Imagine you had a company of 10 employees. Suddenly, the demand for your product grew, and you had to hire 10 more. Now the company of 20 employees is rolling right along. The company is making a profit and all is well. But now, the equipment has gotten old, the economy has slowed down, and the demand for the product is just not what it used to be. The company is in the red. It is no longer a company that needs or can support 20 employees.

[C. Edmund Wright]

I fear you are right.

[Proud2BeRight]

They are not anticapitalism. They are simply giving slimy Romney some payback for his attack ads in Iowa.

[americanophile]

Yep! I can’t believe the foolishness of conservatives on this. They’re playing Obama’s game; the game of their sworn enemies all out of blind enmity toward Romney. Don’t vote for Romney, fine, but don’t scuttle capitalism; don’t push the entire debate about market economics onto the defensive; into the existential. This is crazy.

[RoosterRedux]

Boy, those asking about Bain are receiving heavy duty flak.

Bain must be Romneys' Achilles Heel.

[tsowellfan]

The new republican primary: "My opponent is more capitalist than I am!"

Didn't Santorum lose an election doing something similar to this?

[david1313]

There is a difference betwee a free market capitalitic approach to business and what Bain Capital did. It was the worse kind of greed, not capitalism that is at stake here. I am thankful for Newt pointing it out.

[americanophile]

Obamabot,

Try to seperate your myopic hatred of Romney (irrelevant) from the big ideological picture and what this left wing rhetorical indictment of capitalism will do to conservatism and free market economic in the longrun....mmmkay?

[deoetdoctrinae]

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[NavyCanDo]

Sounds like the same commentary Rush gave this morning. And I think he is right. Newt was on hot and Romney was not, when he was making Obama the bad guy. But lately Newt has been turning his guns on Romney’s for a being filthy rich CEO of a large evil corporation. Newt is not sounding like a conservative, and repeating things that Harry Reed and Pelosi have been saying.

[tsowellfan]

I am thankful for Newt pointing it out.

Newt does well in the polls when he talks about solutions.

What is Newt's solution on this issue? Just curious.

[re_nortex]

Economic freedom is capitalism. Those who are against capitalism are against freedom.

Well said and a hearty amen to both points.

I'll also add that much is being made about a boss being able to fire workers. If that's what it takes, so be it. It also works the other way, a worker is equally free fire to fire his boss by leaving and offering his services to another company. That's true freedom and individual liberty in the economic sphere. Employment at will is a chief component of an unfettered marketplace where both the employer and employee can work to their best interests.

That's one of the reasons why the minimum wage is so evil. It usurps the true freedom of the marketplace by setting a contrived bottom on the wage scale. It denies a worker the liberty of offering a service at a price that represents an honest evaluation of said service.

[americanophile]

Exactly. Thank God there’s some clarity around here.

[colorado tanker]

The case against Romney can easily be made without resorting to Democrat-style business bashing.

[cripplecreek]

We have FReepers who want to save the EPA to protect us from the evil polluters too.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2830996/posts

[Tublecane]

“If it’s true, what is the problem with pointing it out?”

There’s no problem with pointing it out, if it can be used to counter Mitt’s claims as a job creator. Though I might think supposed conservatives would pick more appropriate targets than the couple of instances in which more people were laid off than saved by the mutual operation of private businesses in the free market in which Romney took part.

The problem is, rather, the way it’s being pointed out. Out of Newt’s mouth stream words that I expect to be followed up with Obama’s voice saying “I approve of this message.” It’s all about “fairness” and how much wealth is too much. I think I actually heard him say “plunder,” which is ridiculous. You can go after Romney without sounding like a leftist. Or maybe Newt can’t, either because he’s lost his conservative mojo, he wasn’t ever the conservative we thought he was, or he’s too clever by half and once again has tricked himself into being a liberal, a la “rightwing social engineering.”

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Ok here is what is going on. As hard as it is to believe.. there are liberal Republicans... and they appear to be about 20% of us.. and they support Romney.

If they are only about 20% of us, and those are the only people supporting Romney, then there is no need to cut into that support because that is far less than what he needs to win the nomination. So at some level, your baseline assumptions are wrong.

I'm not sure the percentage of Republicans who are "liberal Republicans", but I do know some conservative Republicans who support Romney. Their belief is that Romney is actually much more conservative than shown by his tenure as governor in Massachusetts, and would govern even more conservatively.

Now, those people likely are wrong, but that makes them mistaken conservatives, not liberals. So, the best way to get their votes is to attack Romney from the right, and point out how he really isn't a conservative.

Attacking him from the left assumes that some of those "liberal Republicans" are going to be swayed to vote for Newt or Santorum instead, and frankly, that makes no sense to me.

[ozzymandus]

So many “conservatives” are blinded by their hatred of Romney that they’re willing to swallow leftist propaganda. I’ll vote for whoever runs against Obama.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I would say your post is right on the money. Newt was on Fox today and Megyn Kelly interviewed him. He told her Fox News claimed he was dead before and look where he is. I do not for one minute think he is just staying in it to destroy Romney out of anger.

[cripplecreek]

The last company I worked for was bought by Collins and Aikman who squeezed the value out of it and dumped the corpse. It wasn’t pretty or fun but its been going on for a long time now and if that’s what stockholders want, there isn’t much anyone can do about it.

Collins and Aikman themselves declared bankruptcy in 07 on David Stockman’s watch.

[Yaelle]

It’s a stupid argument. Newt wants to win little battles and lose the big war (against Obama). Newt is attacking the one thing that IS conservative about Romney.

Rethink newt. He’s too needy and selfish to be a decent president. We can never trust him. Never.