It amazes me how NeoCons are die hard conservatives when they speak out against social programs aimed at helping improve the lives of the poor and working class Americans, yet they are no longer fiscally conservative when it comes wasting money to fund the military industrial complex, the war on terrorism and the war on drugs
Well, one thing you have to remember though is that not all conservatives are neocons. Conservatism comes in many different flavors and forms. And the degree to which someone might be a conservative changes, depending on whether you're talking about foreign policy, domestic policy, religious/social policies or fiscal/economic matters. There's a lot of mixing and matching, just like with most any other political philosophy. Can you imagine some of the so called "conservatives" here on this
porn board trying to sell themselves as social conservatives to a Fundie from Thomas Road Baptist Church? :rofl: Don't ask me about Will E Worm. It makes my head hurt to try to figure out what his deal is here.
The difference is, there are more than a few within the GOP who want to purify the party. Right now, it seems that the most powerful forces within the GOP are the (actual & true) neocons (pushing their beliefs on interventionist foreign policies) and the Evangelicals/fundamentalists (domestic social policy seems to be what they focus on the most). Course, you also have the well funded, intellectual Club for Growth types (free trade, whether it's fair to America or not). In the minority (and out of power for the most part) are the more traditional conservatives.... people like Pat Buchanan, Christopher Buckley, Colin Powell and Jack Kemp (R.I.P.). These are the people that the others now often refer to as RINO's, or whom they want marginalized or chased out of the party. In other words, the very same people who helped make the tent bigger are now being told to get the fuck out of the tent. Makes perfect sense. Clear as mud...
Ronald Reagan's words were:
"If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." The Club for Growth types, within the GOP, only apply that belief about libertariansim to fiscal/economic issues. On social issues, they defer to the Evangelicals/fundamentalists, who are anything BUT libertarians. Even though they like to drag out the ghost of Reagan, the post-Reagan conservatives seem to hang more onto the motto of George W. Bush:
"You're either with us or you're against us."
I think that's one of the reasons that so many people (myself included), who had voted for Republicans in the past, now refuse to be identified with that party. The number of people identifying themselves as Independents continues to grow
thumbsup::nanner::thumbsup
. If/when the Democrats take the centrist position, the whackos in the GOP (Palin, Bachmann, et al) will have no place to hide. I think that's what many Independents hoped for with Obama. Thus far, I'm sad to say, he hasn't really delivered. But with that said, I'm under
no illusion that the very same people within the GOP, who didn't know the right answers yesterday, have all of a sudden gotten it figured out today. Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Glen Beck are great cheerleaders for "the base". But the base isn't big enough to win a national election. So like Col. Custer and the 7th Calvary, some people only learn a lesson once the Indians are slicing their balls off for souvenirs.
It's just a real shame that we don't have a well organized, centrist third party in this country. If the Democrats are to lose seats next year, why in the world would we want to give those seats to a party that is
at least as foul and incompetent as the one we would vote out???!!! Those seats should go to a third party, IMO. A party that would be for (FAIR) free trade, non interventionist foreign policies and sensible domestic policies, that most sane Americans would favor.
Well, I can always dream. :helpme:
