Conservatism in Exile

Before I get into this, let's get the housekeeping out of the way.

Today's post is a blueprint for conservatism's greater return. On Monday, I''ll get to my final lineup of and inforama extravaganza on the candidates we will (except for you early voting wankers) have to *gag* pick from. And on Tuesday, we go live blog with an all-day chat.

If you are interested in adding the live blog to your blog, drop me an email, and I'll be getting the code out to you around midnight. It will go live on my blog at 12:05 AM election day, and I will gladly inform you I'm done getting to know myself better and will be engaging in slumber.


Introduction

Come Wednesday (I hope), we will know who our next President will be. But as for a conservative leader, we have found ourselves wanting. This is nothing new, though. Conservatism has always been a tough sell:

"Conservatism is an active intellectual pursuit; it requires a constant vigilance. It has nothing to do with feelings." - Rush Limbaugh

This is why conservatism needs leaders who actively pursue the principles I'll be espousing below. If we forget, or let up, then we suffer the creep of liberalism, of apathy, and of the decay of thought.


Defining Conservatism

"2 b: a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change ; specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (as retirement income or health-care coverage)" - Merriam-Webster.com

It's a good start (as I am a dictionary whore), but the principals of conservatism are thus:

• Lower, simpler taxes that allow for the maximum opportunity for all.
• A return to more local control, thus creating a smaller government.
• Honoring values that have sustained us and made us stronger through our country's trials
• Strength and leadership in an unstable world
  
• personal responsibility.

The Role of Government

"There's a reason the Founding Fathers created a limited government. When a government ceases to be of laws, but of men, then the capriciousness and evil of men can consume it." - Patrick M

The Constitution, and the subsequent Bill of Rights, was designed specifically to limit the power of the federal government to specific activities so that it could not gather power to itself. As a government grows in size and power and scope, its central tendency is to usurp freedoms of individuals for the "common good." We of course, have allowed the government to do just that, so that state governments find themselves controlled further by Washington. This pull toward centralization, fought by Founders like Thomas Jefferson, is the tendency that conservatism must fight.

The Next Four Years

Conservative leadership must stand up the next four years and fight like hell every day to explain the dangers we are spiraling into. With a President McCain, the task is to turn an enemy of conservatism by leading him along the path. No compromises. No reaching across the aisle. Learn from the mistakes of the Bush administration and the 6 years the GOP helped him bloat the government like a constipated binge eater.

With a President Obama, there must be a focus on holding the line until 2010, when the GOP, with new leadership (bye-bye, Boehner), can be ready with a new Contract with America. Only this time, they need to stick to it and not let Washington go to their heads (or wallets, or dicks, etc.). And either Obama will play the populism like Clinton or go one-termer, Carter style.


The Short List and Shorter Conclusion

To win back a country that the GOP has fed a bigger line of bullshit than "The check is in the mail," there are a handful of issues that can ignite interest in conservatism.

• The Fairtax- I can think of nothing simpler than to take away the power of the government to manipulate people through the obscene tax code. The FairTax does this, and almost everybody pays less taxes, except those who are evading them. Plus the resulting economic boom would kick ass and the IRS would be dead.
• Abolishing Departments - Pick the ones nobody likes and kill them. The FCC can shut up, for example. Other killables: Department of Labor, Department of Education. Their power shifts back to the states. Then condense a couple others (Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation, and Department of the Interior; Department of Housing & Urban Development, and Department of Health & Human Services; Department of Homeland Security, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Defense) That's just some savings off the top of my head.
• Fiscal responsibility and leadership - Reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead of the government producing reams of bullshit, get it lean and mean, or better yet, skinny and pissed. This, of course, means running the government as though they are out to make a profit. And adjust the taxes so it will be close every year. And if they want to promote something in the private sector that government can use (like electric cars), then buy them by the assload.
  
• Wean - This is the big one. Programs that involve transfer payments must go, but slowly. The big one that I see is Social Security. Yeah, I said Social Security. We retire it in say, 50 years. But that means figuring the point, say 15 years after the plan begins, to start freezing, then reducing the benefit, or setting up the transfer to the private sector, or to the states if they want to piss with it.

Okay, there it is. The GOP can run with it and really fix the government once and for all. Or they can continue to struggle in their half-assed attempts at pretending they lead anything other than on the list of politicians who should, come the day we go fully socialist, be shot for dereliction of duty.