Big-Government Conservatism
…[Bush] has tolerated a surge in federal spending, downplayed swollen deficits, failed to use his veto, created a vast Department of Homeland Security, and fashioned an alliance of sorts with Teddy Kennedy on education and Medicare. But the real gripe is that Bush isn’t their kind of conventional conservative. Rather, he’s a big government conservative .
…[Reagan] declared in his inauguration address that government was the problem, not the solution. There, Bush begs to differ.
Big government conservatives prefer to be in favor of things because that puts them on the political offensive. Promoting spending cuts/minimalist government doesn’t do that.
Another trait is a far more benign view of government than traditional conservatives have. Big government conservatives are favorably disposed toward what neoconservative Irving Kristol has called a “conservative welfare state.” (Neocons tend to be big government conservatives.)
Bush has never put a name on his political philosophy, though he once joked that it was based on the premise that you could fool some of the people all of the time and he intended to concentrate on those people .
© Copyright 2004, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved
**VS**
**Revitalizing Conservatism**
The Split on the Right. Conservatives are fighting each other… …David Frum [a NeoCon] made…a banner denunciation of any conservative with reservations about the invasion of Iraq. …conservative intellectuals and activists opposed or even those critical of it before the fighting or even those who mentioned that protecting Israel’s interests could complicate matters were all labeled paleo-conservatives and pushed off to the nutty fringe. …some of who differed on principle, but most simply saw the facts differently.
…today, Reagan mainstream conservatism
…neo-conservatism soon replaced limited government as the ideal and filled the pages of the journals on the right…[National Review] even called for a revival of colonialism under U.S. auspices and the building of an American empire . Bill Buckley…[condemned] empire-building as incompatible with American conservatism .
…NR and the [Weekly] Standard…[expressed] mild encomiums that it would be pleasant if [GWB] moved right domestically… By 2000, there was no opinion journal heralding the limited-government position…
…conservatives had agreed that all foreign policy had to be justified on the criterion–was it in “the just interests of the United States”? …Bill Kristol, Max Boot and Paul Johnson…[said] that a new American colonialism was required to bring peace and democracy to the world.
…If the U.S. government has the ability to bring peace and democracy to the world, big government can obviously also run America’s economy and plan its social life–and limited government becomes irrelevant.
…there is a need to…move back to [conservatisms’] first principles…to start returning power to states, communities and the people rather than support the lesser-evil big government solution.
COPYRIGHT ©2003 AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION*
“True Scotsman” or the hijacking of a conservative movement?
I vote for a hijacking of the conservative movment myself.
GWB has shown himself to be no foe of large goverment. Is there a debate about that?
**“True Scotsman” or the hijacking of a conservative movement?
Does the neocon persuasion equal a hijacking of the conservative movement, (in the US, of course), or are the distinctions drawn by Mr. Devine merely a case of using the “True Scotsman” ploy?
I am not one of those people who goes around shouting "The two party system is failing this country, vote for nader (or libertarian or whatever). Also, I am not a Republican or a Democrat. But, I do think that mainstream conservatives need to take back some power in the Republican party and stand up to big government conservatives (Neocons).
I actually like neocons, but fall short of calling myself one. I supported the PNAC back in 1998, supported the Iraq war, and still support it. But, I don’t like the neoconservative and current Republican adminstration’s domestic agenda. Basically, they have become big government types similar to Democrats, only with big business leanings.
I don’t what sort of con I am, paleo, neo, or otherwise.