I don’t really think that we have much to cheer about from a recent Gallup survey that says most Americans see themselves as being mostly conservative.
In fact even on economic issues, that “conservatives” are in the majority means even less:
The problem is that most “conservatives” don’t have much of a grasp on economics, and what I see as “conservative” economics is really conservative Keynesianism. I will concede the fact that most conservatives would espouse the following general ideas:
- Free markets are good.
- Free trade is good.
- “Excessive” government regulation is bad.
- High taxes are bad.
- “Excessive” government spending and deficits are bad.
Yet when you ask conservatives what those things actually mean, it comes out as the Democratic Party platform from the 1970s, which is to say:
- Government intervention to prevent capitalism’s excesses are good.
- Bailouts to the “right people” are good.
- Social Security and Medicare are good.
- Free trade is good as long as it doesn’t take away American jobs.
- Excessive spending is acceptable in a “national emergency” such as in the Crash of 2008.
- The Fed is good, except maybe that guy Bernanke …
I could go on about these comparisons, but I think you understand the point. I mean, most conservatives think that George W. Bush was a free market conservative.
As Eldridge Cleaver used to say, “You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.”
Don’t stand up and cheer that more people are libertarians. They are ineffectual in moving us in the right direction. The tea party knew how and has been effective for their numbers. Libertarians actually voted for Obama in 2008 and will again in 2012 by writing in Ron Paul. Uselessness is the best word I can think of.
I speak from disappointment but long ago abandoned libertarian politics.
You’re part of the problem
+1
Uselessness—would be electing Romney and expecting change.
Disappointment will be the result of continued beltway politics.
Liberal or conservative versions of the same statist policy will just march us further into an Orwellian dystopia.
Given the spending binge conservatives went on in the Bush era, I’d call your point on the 1970′s Democratic platform dead on.
[...] Most Americans Are “Conservatives”: Don’t Stand Up And Cheer (dailycapitalist.com) [...]
I get it. Ok. I can get behind having he system collapse.
jeff-
with all due respect, what a pile of assumption, straw men, and unsubstantiated vitriol.
sounds to me like you are erecting a bugbear and arguing with yourself.
you whole “what they really mean” section is unsupported conjecture, much of it, to my mind largely false.
you think conservatives support medicare and ss more than liberals?
you think they are the ones, not the “liberal left leaning unions” that demand protection for american jobs or that they are the bigger proponents of “excessive spending”.
i am left wondering what color the sky is on your world.
if you have some evidence to back up your claims, i’d be happy to see it, but on their face, many seem like outlandish distortions, deliberate oversimplifications, and outright wrong.
also, i think you need to be very careful around what the average citizen believes and what the typical politician does. i think there is a pretty good gap between them.
I only read Gallup poles after consuming a bottle of Gallo wine; as it aids in my comprehension…