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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (3312)	3/28/2007 12:07:54 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Thanks, Let me be clearer why the 47 minute lecture on how the liberals are viewed is not a way to spend valuable time. First, you already knew everything the guy said in the video...I have heard the same comments on the GWB thread and others for five years now...everything from use of terminology to the physical impossibility of flushing a book down a toilet (which, I guess, proves that the koran was never desicrated...o.k.). And the left-wing MSM is not doing this, or not doing that, etc. There was very little, very little, in that video about what used to make conservatives better than liberals (or progressives). The principles that guy talked about were (for the most part) not core conservative principles. It really came down to: "The libs are looney and the deck is stacked against us as conservatives, but we know better". Now, if you want to engage in a true battle of ideas for 47 minutes, why not do the following instead of just point out how the libs are looney and you can't flush a book down the toilet, and some other lame jokes (nobody was laughing on that video...it sounded like they didn't know what to do in response). 1). Conservatives stand for free expression of ideas. If ideas are expressed freely the best ideas will surface and be embraced and adopted by the people (voters). This was one of Reagan's key points...you don't need to say the other side is lame. Sell your own ideas. The right has loads of outlets to get its message out now. There were always conservative newspapers..but now with Fox News and the blogs and talk radio, the old MSM liberal bias stuff is tired. The BEST ideas will prevail, so sell your ideas merits not just poke at the other guys. 2). Conservatives believe in smaller government. Where is this principle? Conservatives nowadays create huge new government departments (Homeland Security) agencies (TSA) and benefit programs (Medicare Part D) and pay for NONE of it. What happened to the best government is the government that governs least? And I don't buy the idea that 9/11 changed everything. The so-called conservative republicans of today follow Mr. Bush's lead. When they were in charge of Congress and the White House, they spent money like drunken sailors. Now (after losing power) they are talking about fiscal discipline. Give me a break! The guy in the video mentioned fiscal responsibility once...once...in 47 minutes. 3) Balanced Budgets...same as above. You shouldn't spend it if you can't pay for at least most of it. Conservatives did not used to believe in government debt. It's fun to trash the spending habits of the libs, but since the so-called conservatives are just as bad....well. 4) Conservatives used to, in the Goldwater days..and well into the Reagan days, believe that government had little or no business in personal decisions. They didn't like abortion, but they tried to change the hearts and minds of the voters. The Terry Schaivo case (where a husband and wife's decisions which had already been reviewed by a STATE court) would Never have arisen in the Goldwater/Reagan years. So why do conservatives now think their job is to influence the family directly? 5) The traditional role of conservative foreign policy (as spelled out for decades in the National Review and other periodicals) is so different than what is now stated to be conservative thinking. I don't know if this is resolved in the conservative movement, as George Will and many others have made it clear the movement still needs to work out this internally. But the Idea of how and when to exercise our power still needs to be explained and sold better than it has been.. O.K...I have to actually go to work...(I'm still a working stiff), but I could add more on the role of government regulation, on taxes, on the treatment of social issues... My point is.....rather than spend 47 minutes trashing the other guy, do that for five minutes and spend 42 minutes explaining core conservative views. The guy on the video didn't do that. So in the battle of ideas, any liberal who watches him isn't going to be sold on conservatism. He is just going to be insulted. You don't win hearts and minds that way. My problem with Mr. Bush is what Tom Delay said recently.... He is no conservative. Now, I don't think big-spendin' Tom is a traditional conservative either. But the recognition that core conservative principles have been highjacked by people clothing themselves in Goldwater/Reagan coats but actually DOING something else, is worth exploring. So, let's not just whack the libs...let's redefine the true element of why conservatives are better, and sell that. P.