Posted on 01/30/2002 3:51:59 PM PST by AAABEST
With Conservative Like This, Who Needs Liberals?
Let me start off by addressing those who have been bashing(and I do mean bash) me and other well intentioned and well known Freepers as being anti-Bush, Libertarians, from the reform party or whatever.
I voted for GWB, and I can ping several freepers to this thread that met me in real life at several Bush rallies (with megaphone in hand). I was a member of the Broward County Young Republicans before moving to the West coast of Florida and I was active in Jeb Bush's campaign for Governor.
I've been on this forum for almost 4 years and anyone that knows me is aware of my conservative views and knows that I'm not a member of the reform party, I'm not a Libertarian (large "l") or any of the other things I and others like me have been accused of.
If you have been engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, bashing long-time, well known Freepers or acting like children because not all of us are enthralled with "Georges Big Government Adventure", please try to control yourselves, at least while posting on this thread.
It's not my purpose (at least at this point) to get GWB un-elected, I like him, he has a beautiful wife, he's a good Commander in Chief and he seems like an honest politician. However, if he keeps ignoring conservative principles and promoting a larger more intrusive government, I and others can no longer continue to support him....on principle.
We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.
Above is the Free Republic mission statement. After his first year, would anyone say that GWB has worked towards this end? I think many conservatives suffer from some kind of Stockholm Syndrome as a result of 8 years of President Clinton, because when I ask many of them what GWB has done for conservatism lately, all I get is that he's not Clinton.
I know he's not a corrupt, law breaking scoundrel, but is that all that's required? Can our republic survive a cycle where Republicans get into office grow government greatly, interspersed with Democrats who grow government even more greatly with little or no reduction? There are actually people on FR that think all of this growth in government spending is some grandiose 8 year plan by Mr. Bush to fool Democrats so that he can cut government later. What an absurd notion.
If any of the initiatives below originated from the Clinton administration, people on FR would have had a cow. Those "Day in the Life of President Bush" threads garner hundreds of fawning responses, while a thread on how our government is growing out of control will die after 10.
I appeal to anyone reading this to consider the below information without bias. The links will open in a separate window for you convenience. I will be adding to this information as necessary God bless America, God bless this forum and God bless you.
Click on the Picture of the President (thinking of new ways grow government) for the corresponding article.
So you don't think he was wrong to support any of those things listed in the original post? What about his silence on the pro-life issue? What about the fact that he has little interest in all the corruption of the Clinton administration? I could go on, but there's a few for starters.
Do we close our eyes and let the constitution be shredded ..and big brother government grow without a word because it would have happened a little faster under Gore?
BTW I do not think it would have because the Conservatives that are currently asleep would have been yelling..
So now we have a new Americore..and more PBS money and more money for the arts..etc etc and we say nothing because it is under a Republican?? No sale my friend!
Face it, the choice is between socialist party A and "we try harder" socialist party B.
Sign me up. No, seriously.
See!! - You're no better than W, if Turd Kennedy were here you'd ping him too. :-)
It's been moved to the end of the text of the article.
Our illustrious leaders have now run slipshod right over the 1st, see patriot act, the 2nd, see gun seizure's in 4 states now, the 4th, see patriot act, and the 10th, that is one they just ignore on a daily basis. I could add more, but that would be redundant at this point. That man actually stood up there and told us, I am Big Brother, and he won. Bet it happens again.
I voted for Bush, and will continue to vote GOP as the lesser of the two electable evils. I will do so as long as the GOP continues to be marginally better at containing the government than their electable alternative, marginally more honest, marginally better at the core government functions such as defense. I know that containing the growth of government is a losing battle. The victory, if ever, won't come about electorally in the foreseeable future. That assessment absolves Bush: he, or any other GOP politician, is dividing the electorate roughly in half, getting the half that is more conservative than it is liberal, and hoping the chad hangs on. The assessment condemns the America's better half, and most of all it condemns the system.
The system rewards politicians that expand the government and punishes (at the voting booth) politicians that contract it. That is because expanding government incurs acute joy in the recipients of the government's largesse, and diffuse pain among the rest. Reducing government incurs acute pain and diffuse joy. Guess who keeps winning, no matter who gets elected.
The solution may be cataclysmic, e.g. a war may rearrange the electorate's priorities, but most likely it will come at the point when the economic system infected by semi-socialism collapses: a Great Depression in reverse.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.