As I have stated many times, I have been playing the political game for 40+ years and have seen and heard much. I have always tried to be respectfully of others opinions, but recently that becomes harder and harder as the political hatred goes deeper. As long as a person truly believes their political position is important but nowadays it is not based on fact just simple hatred of the other side. This is why there is very little civil debate going on in politics anymore.
I guess that one would say that I am a liberal or possibly a Progressive…I let others pick the title for they will anyway. I think that conservatism has a very important place at the political table, but in recent decades that position becomes very clouded for me….why?….because it is racked with contradictions.
Let me explain my thoughts.
First, a strong national defense–this one I do not have a problem with….but when it takes money that is needed for American citizens …I will bitch. And IMO fighting useless wars is not national defense but rather a form of expansionism. But there are “good” wars, if any war can be good.
Second, a small limited national government….a grand idea but…….but they champion intrusions into personal liberties like abortion, same sex marriage, marijuana, etc. In other words they try to legislate morality and that is a big intrusion. Conservs want the individual to be responsible, but does not want them to have a choice in the own lives.
Third, conservs dislike deficit spending, always wanting a balanced budget buy continually push for increases in spending for the military and unnecessary wars.
Fourth, conservs detest people who they say are parasites on the society for taking welfare, yet champion those who scam and speculate….these people do not create anything but risk and crashes in the markets.
Fifth, conservs stand on the Constitution to the point of wanting everyone to take oaths to support it, yet they detest the strict adherence of the Bill of Rights, they say such a thing only weakens our national security.
These are only a few of the things that I find contradictory within the conservative movement….I have written that there needs to be a liberal wing of the GOP (read more in my page, “Liberal Republican”) the party would then be more balanced. But since the early 90’s the party was hijacked by the extreme Right and in doing so they are destroying the party slowly but surely.
The GOP has no political philosophy other than tax cuts, a throw back from Laffer and Reagan….saying NO is not a philosophy and throwing vague concepts around is NOT a plan. There seems to be NO discipline and with none there is NO leadership. Without leadership there will be NO party.
Your point(s) have been noted and I am somewhat in agreement with your views. Far right conservatives movement is what has caused voters to elect so many left leaning democrats.
Contrary to the views of many conservatives there are a lot more republicans and democrats that are middle of the roaders than left or right leaning voters.
pobept you are correct, most of the US is centrist…however the GOP has allowed the conversation to be hijacked by those on the extreme….I posted recently that maybe we need a new party for the liberal republicans or should I say progressive Repubs? Somewhere there has to be a middle ground in the GOP. Thanx for the visit
“but nowadays it is not based on fact just simple hatred of the other side” Yes and that would be a good description of the position of almost ALL fundamentalist movements on the planet (fundamentalist eventually = terrorist!).
However, looking at the rest of your very good post, in the UK, apart from minor and effectively insignificant parties, there is a third part and they (of all things) call themselves the Liberal Democrats, being an amalgamation of two previously individual “centre” parties. The problem is that they are anything but liberal, in my opinion at least. They have a lot of sort of centerist policicies along with a lot of leftist ones and some really weird ideas too. But to my mind they are in any event so wishy-washy and often just plain lunatic that relatively few people vote for them and even fewer can understand what the f*ck they’re going on about, or stand for.
That, like you, leaves us with what amounts to a two party system. We had Blair and New Labour and, to be honest, Blair was one of the best Tory leaders we’ve ever had (although, of course, he wasn’t Tory). It’s a bit like a right wing Democrat would be in the States. Unfortunately, the history of Labour’s reform from being a totally unelectable rabble of Communists/Socialists into a forward looking modern political party meant that certain people had to be “pacified” and that meant that, among others, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader in waiting was Gordon Bloody Brown, an old style squeeze everyone with a few quid in the bank to pay for the layabouts who don’t want to work, or are so stupid, bigoted and pig-ignorant that they are f*cking unemployable.
The result though is always the same wherever democracy flourishes in the world (and I wouldn’t lose that for anything, but…) – if you have a right wing rabble with an apparent chance of being elected, the backlash results in the election of a left wing rabble … and vice versa.
To put it another way: WE NEVER GET THE GOVERNMENT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT AND DESERVE!
Sad, but I think very true. Something needs to change!
Quin as usual it is great to get your posts they are very informative….we here in the US know very little about the political happenings in the UK….thanx so much….we have a saying here that WE GET THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY……that pretty much describes the political process here.
I think you should probably change that to the best government BIG money can buy 🙂
You be right as usual……LOL