| | What is conservatism?
conservatism - adj. - respectful of tradition and precedent; cautious with change
According to the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, conservatism is a political philosophy that advocates institutions and traditional practices that have developed organically over a period of time. Conservatism is about stability and continuity, and a desire to preserve the value in the existing order.
Conservatives respect the wisdom of the past and are generally opposed to widespread reform. Many see themselves as rugged individualists, and support open markets, free trade, and individual responsibility and decision making. When it comes to government, conservatives value small government, fiscal sanity, a strong defense posture, and the preservation of individual Rights and Freedoms.
Many conservatives regard Edmund Burke as the philosophical founder of of modern conservatism. His book "Reflections on the Revolution in France" became widely regarded as a manifesto of conservative thought. Burke coined the term "liberal conservatism", which at the time meant organic reform and governing on the basis of abstract ideas rather than autocracy. He placed property at the root of human rights, and considered that social structure arises from a desire of human beings to be ruled justly, and governed wisely.
The morality of just and wise governance is surely not lost on most Americans. In fact, morality is a central issue for many conservatives, and ripples through almost every aspect of conservative political thinking. Conservatism attracts people who feel strongly about moral issues, and provides them with a political base from which to exert an ideological influence on the course of our nation. When things are working well, political conservatism is balanced by classical liberalism that advocates change and reform, and the two opposing forces push inward on each other to help set a stable course that navigates the middle ground.
Most conservatives have traditionally been represented by the Republican Party, which grew up around the anti-slavery movement during the Civil War. Republicans consider that they represent the Party of Lincoln, which then became the party of Ronald Reagan. These Presidents are held in high regard because they stood for the People of the United States, and the United States itself - the union which binds us all together into one unified country, with a strong moral fiber and a robust work ethic. We like to retain the fruits of our labor, instead of being forced to give them up for people who don't work and don't contribute. We want to be secure in the knowledge that our government is protecting our Rights, watching our backs with a strong defense posture, and protecting our earnings and savings by promoting entreprenurship and investment and ensuring a healthy national economy.
But today, that picture has changed. The very same party that we used to be able to count on to protect our interests, has turned its back on us, and panders instead to a small clique of powerful oligarchs and a few fence-sitters who are more interested in compromise than in doing the right thing. Modern conservatism is no longer represented by the Republican Party. The Republican Party has been usurped by Neo-Cons, who steal our freedoms in the name of coercive regulations and unnecessary entitlements, and spend our money for dubious adventures in militarism and economic globalism. Today's Republican Party is characterized by reckless corporate welfare, aggressive pre-emptive foreign interventions, and intolerant social policies that haphazardly violate human Rights and dignities.
What happened? How did this dramatic change in the implementation of "conservatism" come about?
We consider that the Republican Party has sold out the American People. It has become beholden to Big Money and special interests, and a cadre of wealthy robber barons who seek to subjugate our sovereignty to international bodies that hold no favor or allegiance to the United States of America. Today's Republican Party has brought us the biggest government ever, the largest and most expensive new entitlements in 40 years, and a globalist economic policy that is destroying the savings and entrepreneurial abilities of American citizens.
The worst part of it is, that the Republican Party has been contributing to the fostering of dependency in the American People, and it occurs in many ways - one of the most important of which we have recently seen in the concept of "too big to fail". The policies that promote free enterprise, have given way to the support of enormous financial institutions that are far too large and powerful for anyone's comfort or well-being. And our politicians have become beholden to these gigantic corporations, and given them monopolies over essential services and even hard commodities, to the point where the ordinary American citizen can no longer function without them. In the process of promoting free enterprise, well-meaning conservatives have been hoodwinked by a corporatist lobbying culture that promotes "free markets" when what they really mean is they want the government to look the other way while they rob us blind. All you have to do, to see the truth in that, is simply look around. Look what happened on Sept. 29 2008, that was the day "someone" dumped almost 500 billion dollars of worthless paper onto an unsuspecting market in a mere three hours, causing a panic and a crash and the ensuing corporate bailouts at taxpayer expense. And all this, could have been prevented if our Republican administration weren't asleep at the wheel, or busily engaged in diverting its attention (and the Peoples') elsewhere.
Today's Republican Party no longer represents the vast majority of its constituents. Republican Party leaders today, pay lip service to core values, but if you look at their actual behavior you'll see that it's quite different from what comes out of their mouths. They say they're promoting free enterprise, but meanwhile they're structuring the economy in a way that it makes it impossible for an American enterpreneur to compete on a level playing field with his Chinese counterparts. They say they're promoting individual responsibility, but meanwhile they're engaging in blanket surveillance that would make Big Brother proud. They say they're seeking American dominance in world markets, but meanwhile they're angering our allies and creating new enemies even as they borrow billions of dollars from both and stretch the good faith and credit of the government to its limits, which makes it very unlikely that the United States will get desperately needed loans on favorable terms. And they say they're against the re-distribution of wealth, and yet we've just seen more re-distribution than ever before in history! And meanwhile, much of our retirement savings has evaporated into thin air, as our 401k's lose value and the dollar becomes increasingly worthless. How can any of this be good for the American People?
We consider that the Neo-Cons were an aberration. They certainly weren't conservative, by any stretch of the imagination. Having begun as Democrats in the Scoop Jackson campaign in 1976, they jumped ship and hijacked the Republican Party base, then usurped its principles and its leadership by appealing to the exceptionalism of the foreign policy conservatives and the morality of the social conservatives, and finally betrayed them both by trampling on the United States Constitution in the name of economic dominance and global hegemony.
The result is self-evident. You see the United States immersed in a 12 trillion dollar debt while the dollar sinks like a rock, even as we become beholden to Communist China whose banks are ten times the size of those we consider to be "too big to fail". We have to bail out our businesses and financial institutions at taxpayer expense, because we spend so much money on debt service that no nation wants to loan us more! So our only option is to print more money, which results in dilution of buying power and forces corporations to make domestic job and wage cuts just to survive in the international economy. And all of this happened on the Republican watch, with a Republican President, and a Republican Congress.
Unfortunately, the Neo-Cons are still around. The Republican Party has been either unwilling or incapable of purging them from its ranks, with the result that true conservatives are now politically homeless. The Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate is hopelessly corrupt, and there has been a long history of moral and intellectual hypocrisy leading to scandal and disgrace, even as the remaining few honorable representatives find themselves incapable of controlling the sheer volume of lobbying and influence trading. And even the directors of our most hallowed economic institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank, thumb their noses at our Congress because our representatives are singularly ineffectual in doing the jobs to which they were elected.
Much as it hurts to look in the mirror, we must recognize that it is time for a change. We can not allow the status quo to continue while our creditors use our weaknesses to plunder what remains of our national economy and our national pride. Our resources are being drained with every passing day, and if this situation isn't addressed quickly and with emphasis, we will indeed realize Thomas Jefferson's nightmare of waking up homeless and destitute on the continent our Fathers conquered.
The American Populist Party seeks to restore the core values of classical conservatism. We value the rugged individuality and the spirit of invention and entrepreneurship that made this nation great. We support the core conservative principles of small government, fiscal sanity, a sound defense posture, and the preservation of human Rights and human dignity. We consider that the reason we resort to government at all, is to protect our Rights and defend our Freedoms. We don't like the idea of using American taxpayer money to bail out failing corporations, or to fund overseas operations that undercut American businesses.
The timeless conservative economic and political traditions and principles are a big part of what makes this nation great. But the restoration of conservative political principles can't be accomplished by the Republican Party establishment. Today's Republican Party is the party of corporate welfare, torture and rendition, borrowing of huge sums of money that our children will never be able to pay back, coercive regulations reaching into every aspect of our personal lives, and special interest influence that corrupts the decisions of our elected representatives.
It is time for real change. The political power and the law-making authority belongs in the hands of the People, not in the hands of appointed "czars" and bureaucrats and Executive Branch administrators.
In the 2010 election cycle, we are endorsing candidates who stand for Constitutional government, fiscal sanity, and a restoration of the Rights and freedoms of the People. Some of our endorsements may surprise you. We don't always endorse the most conservative candidates, in fact there are many libertarians and even liberals on our list. The one thing they all have in common, is that they all stand for the People, and for the Constitution of the United States. Our Constitution suffered greatly during the Neo-Con tenure, and now it's suffering even more under a President who considers it to be a "living, breathing" guide for government, and nothing more. We see things in quite the opposite way, we consider that the current administration is waving its hands over the highest law in the land, and using the "living, breathing" excuse to subvert its checks and balances as well as its limitations on the Powers of both the Congress and the Executive Branch. And in all fairness, this subversion has been going on for quite some time, far longer than just a single administration - and that is perhaps the most painful part of all. The Republicans we thought we could depend on to preserve our Constitutional traditions, have sold us out.
We care more whether you stand for the People, and the Constitution of the United States, and against the corrupt special interests that dominate today's power elite on Capitol Hill, and we consider it less important whether you happen to be a conservative or a liberal or an independent political thinker. We agree that it will take politicians with integrity and intellectual honesty to restore some sanity and respectability to our federal government.
Patrick Henry said: "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." Our Constitutional contract is the only thing that stands between us and tyranny - and those who ignore it, ridicule it, and minimize its importance are the same people who seek to trample on our individual Rights and interfere with every aspect of our lives, usually in the name of some nebulous "greater good" that not even they can define. We think YOU are the one best qualified to decide what's good for you. It seems very dangerous indeed to trust government with that decision.
Please take a few moments to read through our Essential Information pages, and browse our video library, and think about ways that you can help, to restore a Constitutional government - Of, By, and For the People. | |