Why are you so fixated on my FSP membership?
Anyhow, long post:
MicroBalrog Disclaimer: This post is being written away from my home, as such I have no access to my books, and am unable to provide detailed bibliographical reference. Bear with me, please.
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Consdier, if you will, the following. The conservative movement can be subdivided for the purposes of my argument into what the New York Times would call 'creedal conservatives' and 'mindset conservatives. The mindset conservatives would be best described by pointing to Edmund Burke's diatribe against the French Revolution i.e., their key opposition to social-democrats or Progressive does not stem from some principled opposition to Big Government, or to secularism, but rather from their opposition to radical change.
In the modern era, these people are often represented by neoconservatives. By the term 'neoconservative' I do not mean 'anyone who disagrees with me', as some people are wont to, but rather, I direct you to Irving Kristol's book on Neo-Conservatism. Kristol speicifically advises that conservatism, as he sees it, is not to be entrapped by some 'ideological' opposition to big government, and rather, moderation is to be pursued in this venue. Above all, remember Burke [whom Kristol references very fondly]: RADICAL CHANGE BAAD!
On the other hand, you have the people who want particular change the evangelicals, the libertarians, and whoever else. Note that libertarians are conservatives no matter how some of them bitch and moan and try to pretend they're a separate movement. The libertarians and evangelicals and Reaganites are all separated from the social-democrats by virtue of believing that capitalism is better than socialism, that human beings are individually responsible for moral choices, and that good and evil are not subjective. They differ of course on the extent of the policies they puruse. But the point is, none of these people are 'conservatives' in the sense that they oppose radical change. In fact, technically speaking and as Reagan pointed out the people who want to preserve the welfare state are the Tories. The Reaganites, and the evangelicals, and the libertarians, are revolutionaries.[A useful book on this is Exit With Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan ].
The mindset conservatives (whom I'll call Burke conservatives from now on) have very often won primaries and elections, among other things, by promising the creedal conservatives that they're either better than the other guy [If you don't vote for McCain, Obama will win and take all of your guns!] or that they are a 'way to get what you want, slower'.
Newsflash:
It has not worked.The current status-quo is not going away. The Burke conservatives LOVE the status-quo. The Obamaniacs are going to further the status-quo, and possibly make it slightly* worse
[* During the reign of President Johnson, stuff like guaranteed income (putting everybody on welfare) was seriously discussed in Congress. Reading Man versus Welfare State , one can get really surprised at how left-wing Johnson and the Democrats were then.]
The first thing you need to do to go anywhere is to realize that people like John McCain are NOT like you. They're not 'people just like you, but much more moderate'. They operate on a completely different mindset and set of ideas.
The system where everybody wears suits and ties, speaks only within the allowed frame of debate (enforce existing laws vs. add more laws, cut taxes slightly vs. increase taxes, and so on) benefits 'Da System' and those people who are in charge of it (I don't believe in conspiracies, but I do believe that, 'in every system of government, an olygarchy lurks behind th facade').
You want freedom? Do you SERIOUSLY want freedom or do you just want to avoid Obama eating your children? If B, let me remind you that you can't win every election. You avoided having your nightmare candidate win in 2000, and in 2004, and maybe you're going to avoid having your nightmare candidate win in 2008. Maybe Obama really is the guy who will eat your kids, but seriously, unless you change the system all around, you can't win every single time.
Eventually an unAmerican candidate is going to win and REALLY eat your kids. Unless you destroy the Welfare State first, that is.
And as we demonstrated above, you can't do that by wearing a suit and a tie and voting every few years.
People on these forums argue, repeatedly, that the leftists, and especially Obama, hate America not in the sense that they want to blow up the White House and the Pentagon, but in the sense that they hate everything America is actually about. Forever do the very people who are arguing against me on this thread argue, also, that the leftists are 'at war with America.'
Very well, then. Act like it. Protest. Scream. Subscribe to The American Conservative. You are the people who claim you're at war, aren't you?
Pass to the right. Sign for your placard here.
No, the wookie-suits only come in two sizes, soldier too big and too small.
[I had the vision of a giant, military-like, depot, where Manedwolf and Fistful sign for their wookie-suits. The mental image was too goddamn awesome to pass up.]
