Posted on 08/12/2002 5:48:59 AM PDT by sauropod
Several years ago, I noticed the term "neo-conservative" come into frequent use. I have grown to hate this word because it gives people who bear the term false credentials as true conservatives.
To me, true conservatives fit the description of what used to be called the "Old Right." These "new conservatives" present nothing that reflects the ideas of the "Old Right," or traditional conservatism. Neo-conservatives see nothing wrong with big, centralized government, as long as they, the neo-conservatives, are in charge instead of liberal Democrats. That's like saying, "It would be okay if America was ruled by a dictator, as long as I was the dictator, because I would surely be a benevolent dictator." But you can't count on the next guy to be benevolent. It's asinine.
There is a saying: "Conservatives never conserved anything." In most ways the saying is true. Leading neo-conservatives of today have very moderate stances when it comes to traditional values concerning marriage, sexual mores, immigration, taxation, property rights, limited government, and religion. These people claim to be leaders in the conservative faction of politics. Quite frankly, if you were to put their views and ideas on paper and lay them beside the views and ideas of a liberal Democrat, you would have a hard time telling which ideas were the liberal Democrat's and which came from the neo-conservatives.
Neo-conservatives are in reality neo-socialists, for they cloak their big government socialism in the ideas of big business and they believe that big, centralized government is okay as long as "conservatives" run it. They are the front men for large corporations. They tout capitalism, but in reality they are advocates of mercantilism. This is a close cousin to the state-controlled economies of communist countries. Yes, those economies: the ones that all failed miserably.
What we have in neo-conservatives is a bunch of liberals who are "pretenders to the throne" of conservatism. Real conservatism is actually traditionalism. In that sense, I am not a conservative, but a traditionalist. A "Southern Traditionalist" to be exact. I cling to the ideals and values of our colonial forefathers, and the people of the South who dared stand against Lincoln and the forces of centralization and mercantilism. These new false conservatives can mouth their platitudes and claim to be for tradition all they want. But when their kind continues to expand federal power, to limit our freedoms and liberties, and to accept as normal the perversions that go on in our society, they had best keep in mind that traditionalists like myself see through this façade, and we have had enough. Our numbers are growing, and we no longer believe we have to vote for false conservatives as the "lesser of two evils."
The loud booming voices of neo-conservatism are false prophets. It is like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Pull back the curtain of neo-conservatism and you will see not a conservative, but a socialist. Is it any wonder that many of today's noted neo-conservatives are "former" leftists of the 1960's, or had parents who were members of the Communist Party, USA? Don't two of the Republican's big "conservatives," Orin Hatch of Utah and John McCain of Arizona, spend much of their time "in bed" with Ted Kennedy? When Mississippi's "conservative" Trent Lott was majority leader in the U.S. Senate, did he push a conservative agenda? (The answer, of course, is a very loud "NO.") What has the "arch-conservative" John Ashcroft done since becoming Attorney General? With his help, we are headed toward a police state.
Off hand, the only real conservative, or traditionalist, I see on the national scene is Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. People like him deserve our support. The socialists in neo-conservative clothing need to be spurned. I would rather "throw my vote away" on an independent or third-party candidate and sleep well at night because I didn't contribute to the continuing downfall of our lost republic by voting for a neo-conservative/socialist, than choose "the lesser of two evils" and know that I voted into office someone who was going to go for my wallet and stab me in the back as if he were a common street mugger.
Neo-conservatives are really neo-socialists. True conservatives/traditionalists should denounce these frauds. Just as the original definition of the word "liberal" no longer applies in our society, "conservative" doesn't mean what it used to, not when it comes out of the mouths of the political phonies that man the barricades of the Republican Party. I'm not a neo-conservative, or even a conservative. They've ruined that word. I am a Traditionalist. I hope all who love their freedom, fear God, and know what we have lost, will step up and put on the Traditionalist mantle to help separate themselves from the pretenders who think we will vote for them this election year because they believe we have nowhere else to turn.
© 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)
Conventional conservatives aren't strong on defense and smaller government aka tax cuts? Conveentional conservatives weren't rabidly anti communist? Reagan didn't make wide & extensive use the Christian Coalition's network to win in 80 & 84?
In what parallel reality do you reside?
Reagan transformed the Republican Party into the party of growth,strength and optimism...three winning things that the Paleos will NEVER deliver.
Mere slogans. Though RR was certainly good at turning a phrase thank goodness he had the goods (principles) to back them up.
I suppose it's moot that I would be living with a gooberment microscope up my a$$ or else get sent to the re-education camps so I could be "adjusted" to be a good little citizen? As long as I was "living"... but what kind of life is it where you can't tell the Muslim Talibunnies from the Dem_GOP Talibunnies?
After watching Buchanan WILLINGLY participate in a discussion about Anna Nicole Smith's new television show, I would say MANY of Bucky's Boys would be heading for the hills, hiding their heads in shame. And if they aren't........they SHOULD be!
Needless to say, it was NOT an earth-shattering CONSERVATIVE (the REAL CONSERVATIVE, don'tcha know) discussion. It wasn't even NEO-conservative. It was inane, pulp, trash. He had every opportunity to decry the garbage.....but chose, instead, to participate in the attempt to give the subject legitimacy.
OMG, you know calling leftists "liberals" instead of what they really are hasnt helped or worked except in favor of the leftists. Argue the points and stay away from these labels is best.
When someone refers to a neo-con I always thought of a moderate republican but why refer to them as a neo-con anyway? Anyway the paleo - neo labels are leaving me with the feeling that I cant really know for certain what anyone is talking about when they are used.
I think we can all agree that moderate republicans are worthless. Hope that helps.
Agreed, Reagan wasn't some paleo-Herbert Hoover-style conservative. Some are angry that no paleo-Warren Harding/Herbert Hoover conservatives could get elected today, but I have no problem with Reagan style neo-conservatives.
BTW, the left has the same debate, the liberal base in this country are angry at the "new Democrats" and the "Third Way" politics. They think they have been sold out and want Paul Wellstone or Ralph Nader to be president - everybody else knows it will never happen.
Yeah well, 40 years ago most blacks didn't vote. Today they vote almost completely en banc for Democrats. In other words, the Democrats got handed roughly 11 percent points on average in the nation. (I'm in no way wanting to take anyway anyone's voting rights.) Just stating facts. You can't act like the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the New Frontier never happen. Would you rather the GOP nominate Herbert Hoover's ghost and lose every single election?
Dude, that was a gret post.
Yes, I think its best we conclude this discussion, since you obviously have no idea what "paleo" means.
"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.' "If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it."
Ronald Reagan, from his autobiography, An American Life
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