The Young Cons

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkeZ2P4SiY8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftpmtv%2Etalkingpointsmemo%2Ecom%2F%3Fid%3D2625093%26ref%3Dfpblg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The combination of sometimes mutually contradictory views in the stereotypical conservative really is quite disturbing.

"For the last thirty years there have been no conservatives, there have been only nationalistic radicals of the right and nationalistic radicals of the left." -Aldous Huxley (in a 1952 forward to "Brave New World").

I would say at least the first part of Huxley's statement remains true today (perhaps even the later part when you count mainstream leftists). The rhetoric of this grotesquely simplistic song is just astounding.

Let's start with the self-reliance and entrepreneurial spirit (allegedly antagonistic to Government subsidies) it claims animates conservatism.

•Newt Ginrich's Georgia congressional district was said to display this conservative, self-reliant, bootstrapping spirit. Sad to say, his suburban district was kept alive by HUGE government, namely the Corporate Welfare State (aka the military industrial-complex or military Keynesianism, take your pick of terms).
•Ronald Reagan (or his administration, depending on how attentive the actor actually was to policy), a rightwing nationalistic icon, ruined the economy, caused a savings and loan crisis, feed an already ridiculously large military-industrial complex as Gorbachev was de-escalating the conflict, hiked the payroll tax (adversely affecting the working and middle classes most), and funnelled money to a terrorist campaign against the democratically elected government of Niguargua. This is only to name a few of the Teflon President’s (or his advisors’) blunders or positively malicious policies.

Moving on…

•Miss California: I know pointing out hypocrisy really does not logically rebuke someone’s point. Yet I find it stretching credibility that someone could be raised with strong family values against same-sex marriage yet have inhibition against taking multiple semi-nude photographs contrary a contract one signed. The martyrdom status is really limited when the person retains their crown, thanks to special exceptions generously (if self-interestedly) provided for by Donald Trump.
•Waterboarding: Torture is in line with the fine moral values of conservatism I see. Well, aside from its inefficacy (and potential to provide false information) I see nothing particularly startling about this. After all, the US has a tradition of outsourcing torture to regimes like Syria. Cutting off the middleperson makes little moral difference.

Finally …

Touché, Orwell

In the event this is satire, I do apologize for a rather long winded answer (this qualification is not intended to be sarcastic or ironic in any way).

If i were to add insult to injury, you almost forgot the Watergate scandal in your Reagan checklist. <.< (i think it was him? >< bah, memory's so foggy these days)

erm, sorry, that was Nixon.. I used to think through the Bush years the maxim "Every generation has it's Nixon"...

just be glad you didn't have to live through the Watergate hearings on TV....btw...Hillary Rodham was one of the lawyers against him....

Let's not forget the extreme protectionism of supposed free market conservative Teflon Ron. Or his bailouts of failed firms.

In many respects, Conservatives are ideologically bankrupt for declaring Reagan a small Government, free market capitalist. He was very much a HUGE government, state subsidized capitalist who significantly expanded the corporate welfare state. How such Orwellian distortions can survive at the core of a movement (even an astroturf or "fake grassroots" one) amazes me.

His main inovation, which the top-down, pseudo-grassroots movement conservatives love most, would be how he managed to direct more of the governments resources away from whatever minute social welfare programs in place at the time and towards tax cuts for the rich and expanding the military-industrial complex to tragic proportions. Very HUGE government style policies.

And, to end off this continuation of my anti-Reagnite rant, let us not forget his race-baiting. How positively incompetent and ignorant one would have to be in order to give a speech on states' rights (something conservatives, even loyally followed small government conservatives with a public preception for sincerity, like Ron Paul, seem to forget was a virtual codeword for segregation) where civil rights activists had been murdered.

How such a man or rather constructed figure (given the plausible opinion that he knew nothing of his policies or speeches written by others) can be admired and given the status of icon for a movement disgusts me.

You and me both... I keep wondering why he ranks so high on ordered presidential lists... he should be kept with the scum like Hoover...

If you notice, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II all left office amid economic downturns... the only president since Reagan to leave the office in good economic times was Clinton... in fact, Clinton's two terms were marked with 6 years of sustained real growth... the record in modern history...

There are many (especially social) conservative notions that I would really love to support, but I cannot, in good faith, support a platform that has Reaganomics as its defining characteristic...