Conservatives Come Up With Another Lame Name For The Failed Ideology Of 'Conservatism'
Heather already wrote a great post on this, but I wanted to add a little more. I just love conservatives because they find new words to describe the s
Heather already wrote a great post on this, but I wanted to add a little more. I just love conservatives because they find new words to describe the same old shit that has caused the country into a complete meltdown.
Their latest one is called Constitutional Conservatism. Digby says that Wolf Blitzer proclaimed it's a new day for conservatives.
A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world. A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
- It applies the principle of limited government based on the
rule of law to every proposal.
- It honors the central place of individual liberty in American
politics and life.
- It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and
economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
- It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom
and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that
end.
- It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood,
community, and faith.
If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.
We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.
February 17, 2010 Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America
Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation
Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center
Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union
David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society
T. Kenneth Cribb, former domestic policy adviser to President Reagan
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review
I wonder how many liberals will be signing on with Grover Norquist?
Anyway, it's more of the same bullshit. Didn't Karl Rove help George Bush to create the "Compassionate Conservative?" That was a load of crap too.
In fact, these conservatives are as "constitutional" as they are "compassionate." Which is to say: Not really at all. The giveaway this time around is their complaints that we "Mirandized" the Underwear Bomber and gave him "rights under our Constitution," as though those were only available to U.S. citizens. Except that the Constitution itself is very clear that we give those rights to everyone, citizen or not, under our jurisdiction. You'd think "constitutional conservatives" would be all over that.
We remember how bogus "Compassionate Conservativism" was. Source Watch:
In the June 11, 2000, New York Times article "Bush Draws Campaign Theme From More Than 'the Heart'," Alison Mitchell writes:
"Ask Gov. George W. Bush of Texas about the intellectual origins of his campaign's mantra and he says, 'compassionate conservatism is first and foremost springing from the heart.'
"Yet well before Mr. Bush began building his presidential campaign around the words 'compassionate conservative'--reshaping the image of his party to follow suit--a cadre of thinkers on the right had been trying for years to fashion a form of conservatism that rejected the welfare state but did not turn its back on the poor. And with his campaign strategist, Karl Rove, acting as his guide, Mr. Bush began reading their books and meeting them, even before his first race for governor.
--
"Those introductions amounted to the first building blocks of the 'compassionate conservative' platform Mr. Bush is running on today: tax incentives that he predicts will lead to an explosion of charitable giving; an emphasis on using religious institutions to deal with poverty, drug abuse and other social problems and a pledge to 'usher in the responsibility era,' to replace the notion that 'if it feels good, do it.'
"The core concept of this platform is that while government has a responsibility to the needy, it does not have to provide the services itself. This approach can be seen in everything from Mr. Bush's proposals for a tax credit to help people buy health insurance to his call to divert some Social Security payroll taxes into individual investment accounts.
"As Stephen Goldsmith, Mr. Bush's chief domestic policy adviser, describes it, 'compassionate conservatism means providing help in such a way as to stimulate and reinforce self-governance.'
"Such thoughts have been germinating for years, and the Bush campaign drew from several different schools of conservative and neoconservative thinkers."
"But Mr. Bush is clearly devoted to the new conservatism. ... And when the time came to assemble his campaign staff, he tapped two apostles of compassionate conservatism: Michael J. Gerson, his chief speechwriter, had been a senior aide to Daniel R. Coats; and Mr. Goldsmith, his chief domestic policy adviser, had tried to create a laboratory for compassionate conservatism as the mayor of Indianapolis in the 1990's."
Then after Compassionate Conservatism failed miserabley, the Bush Hack named Michael Gerson tried to revive their dead-end ideology and came up with a new moniker: "Heroic Conservatism." Jon Stewart had a field day with that one.
Under Compassionate Conservatism, America was attacked on 9/11. Bush and Cheney lied us into the Iraq war, introduced torture as official American policy, and the global financials melted down. Nice job, conservatives. Please f*&k off. You've done enough damage to the world. Your free markets suck and so does your foreign policy, not to mention you can't govern the country either.