OK, Mr. or Ms. Ohioan lawyer, what exactly is a REAL conservative?
Aren't we cute. I use my own name, so you know perfectly well my sex.
And I think that you also know perfectly well, what a real Conservative is. He may differ from some of his fellow Conservatives on some issues, as on the priority between issues. But certain things are basic. If the issue has to do with the Federal Government, the stand has to be consistent with the written Constitution. Nothing is more basic to the Conservative, who is trying to preserve heritage and traditional values, than Truth and the sacredness of oaths. There is no authority for Federal action--for Federal existence--outside the Constitution. You will not find any Conservative, who understands our system, who will disagree with George Washington's well known admonitions, that "Honesty is always the best policy," and let their be "no changes by usurpation."
Beyond that, a Conservative favors the minimal expenditure of public resources; the maximum dependence on individual responsiblity; the maximum encouragement of self-reliance (a major trait, which has often distinguished the traditional American from his old world cousins in Europe, and from his South of the border neighbors, who are and have been, far more apt to look to collective solutions for individual problems).
A Conservative, generally, treats others with the respect that he would have in return; he respects the different values that Americans from different States have always had; and the different cultures of the rest of the world, but unapologetically seeks to preserve his own; as well as the sovereign independence of the United States.
I could go on. But the Rovian folly flies in the face of the whole spectrum of Conservative values. Certainly if Rove told Congressman Tancredo to stay away from the White House--as was reported here last year--he threw down the gauntlet. And you are kidding yourself, if you believe that Rove will not cost the President millions of votes, if he stays, and continues on his present course. Fifty years ago, the head of the American Legion told a Convention that "The time for apologetic Americanism is gone forever." I agreed with the man then, I agree with the man now. Rove has got to go!
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site