How Some Conservatives Hurt Conservatism - By Marvin Olasky

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

How Some Conservatives Hurt Conservatism::By Marvin Olasky (http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MarvinOlasky/2007/04/05/how_some_conservatives_hurt_conservatism)

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That's right: Some Americans devoted to free enterprise and lower taxes actually push policies and lead lives that push this country toward big government. Leftists who want a centralization of power bear sizeable responsibility for governmental growth. But conservatives who don't understand the importance of religious and community institutions are also part of the problem.

That's because a majority of Americans want to do something through common action to help those who are needy. That something can be either governmental, in which case tax bills and government bulk up, or it can be through religious and community institutions, in which case government can shrink. We should not complain about the taxes that fuel governmental action if we neglect volunteer work outside of government.

The politics of this are simple: If Americans have a choice between big government and small government, and if Americans think big government helps the poor and small government doesn't, a crucial mass will often vote for big government. If Americans think the only way to work together on social problems is through government, most will prefer government to giving up.

[DesertFox]

Marvin's fulla baloney on this one. Most people don't give half a rat's patootie about "the poor." Nor should they. Those who want to are free to help "the poor" while the rest of us go about our business.

The prollem with govt doing charity work is that it drives the charitable workers out of the charity bidness. It brings in laws that require this and mandate that if you wanna help, and people working for free just don't have the time or patience for that sorta thing.

[MrSanity]

Government programs help middle class social workers much more than they help the poor.

[Dowple]

How Some Conservatives Hurt Conservatism? By Believing That Marvin Olasky (noted Bush Guru) is a Conservative, that's how.

[Wyatt_Junker]

Government programs help middle class social workers much more than they help the poor.

:claps:

[Rhino]

Marvin's fulla baloney on this one. Most people don't give half a rat's patootie about "the poor." Nor should they. Those who want to are free to help "the poor" while the rest of us go about our business.I think that's a matter of interpretation. Most people do care about the poor. It's just that many of them think somebody else should do something about it. Marvin's fear is that too many people see the government as the "somebody else", including many 'conservatives', which would result in more big government. In that regard, he's correct. The entire premise of the article is that those of us who want to do something should go about doing it ourselves in the private sector, rather than relying on the government to do it. I think he's dead on.

[The_Elucidator]

Most if not all Churches have benevolence funds, foot/clothing pantries and even connections to get jobs. Problem is those benevolence funds get moved into other budget areas, food gets old, clothes get smelly from lack of use and everybody is holding out for a management position. Why would one go to a (dare I say it) Church to get help when Uncle Sam is so willing to help out those who would rather sit home and watch soaps all day.

[thoughtomator]

How some "conservatives" hurt conservatism:

- By telling Americans that there are jobs they just won't do, undermining the moral work ethic that was the foundation of our nation's rise to historically unprecedented prosperity.

- By campaigning on promises of small government, only to turn into pigs at the trough with an expertise that even Ted Kennedy could admire.

- By putting all your political chips in one basket, the Iraq War basket, then undermining the national security argument by not pursuing the war seriously, turning our armed forces into glorified babysitters, and failing to confront states that we know without a doubt are conducting acts of war against us with regularity and malicious intent.

- By insisting that my grandmother be subject to invasive search at the hands of lazy, untrustworthy, and ineffective government bureaucrats every time she wants to visit, while simultaneously insisting that Mexicans flooding over the border be subject to no inspection whatsoever.

- By publicly buying into the global warming fraud.

- By failing to offer new leadership after the old leadership has been rejected by the electorate.

- By devoting party funds to defeating conservatives in favor of liberals in every possible primary.

etc., etc., etc.

If I made a complete summary list in this manner in which the GOP and the Bush admin is undermining conservatism, it would be many times longer than this article.

[Rhino]

It probably was posted here before, too. I sometimes wonder if anybody in the Republican Party ever looks at Conservative forums. They sure don't seem to be paying very much attention, because the dissatisfaction with them is rampant lately.

[thoughtomator]

It probably was posted here before, too. I sometimes wonder if anybody in the Republican Party ever looks at Conservative forums. They sure don't seem to be paying very much attention, because the dissatisfaction with them is rampant lately.

Why should they, as long as we are demonstrably ready to stay on the plantation regardless of what they do?

We would be no less marginalized if we all swore off the GOP for third parties that could not possibly win, and our only leverage with the GOP is the credible threat of doing so. They clearly didn't get the message in this past election, with many longtime straight-GOP ticket voters like myself filing blank ballots or simply not showing up.

[Rhino]

There's been talk of much more of that. I hope that isn't what it takes to get the message across, but the message needs to get across some way.

[The_Elucidator]

There's been talk of much more of that. I hope that isn't what it takes to get the message across, but the message needs to get across some way.

I agree with you Rhino, what that way is I'm not sure. I changed my voting affiliation to the Constitution party back in '04 and the GOP still sends me a ton of crap asking for money. So I tape a peso to the card insert it in the envelope and tell them to kiss my butt. I also tell them the same thing when they call but somehow that message just seems to get lost. I think instead of ignoring the GOP solicitations I think folks should write a little nasty on it and send it back and do the same when they call. But by all means DO NOT BE POLITE! The more anger you express the more startled the dupe on the other end will get.

[Rhino]

The problem is that none of that stuff is apparently filtering back up to the top.

[thoughtomator]

The problem is that none of that stuff is apparently filtering back up to the top.

Probably because not one of the people doing the filtering agrees with us in any substantial way. Andy Card, Rove, Gonzales, Miers, etc., all big-government crypto-socialists who prefer the approval of a New York Times reporter to the approval of millions of conservatives.

[Rhino]

I doubt it ever gets anywhere near that far. It probably never gets past the folks manning the phones or opening the mail.

[The_Elucidator]

I doubt it ever gets anywhere near that far. It probably never gets past the folks manning the phones or opening the mail.

I would hope that the folks in the lowier tier positions would see/hear enough to question the GOP themselves...trickle-up conservanomics.

[Maggie_T]

Oh, whew. For a moment, I thought this thread was going to be yet another interminable bleating against people like Ann Coulter. I'm glad it's not.

Carry on. :)

[Tracker2001]

Hmmm...His first problem, and by the way I think he is wrong on this. Is that he seems to think that a smaller Government coudlnt take care of its own people (wait he doesn't think at all he is simply saying this is what others think...lol). We shouldn't complain about taxes????? Man this guy is just lost on this one. I'm sorry but I will complain about any tax that is #1 unessassary or #2 extortion of the people to line the pockets of pork projects within this country or in other countries.

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"....lol...right.

I don't see any facts in there about Americans being the most generous charity giving people on the planet (the people not the government). There is far too much pork in Washington DC (and I'm not just talking about whats in Ted Kennedy's belly).

[omegatrump]

How some "conservatives" hurt conservatism:

- By telling Americans that there are jobs they just won't do, undermining the moral work ethic that was the foundation of our nation's rise to historically unprecedented prosperity.

- By campaigning on promises of small government, only to turn into pigs at the trough with an expertise that even Ted Kennedy could admire.

- By putting all your political chips in one basket, the Iraq War basket, then undermining the national security argument by not pursuing the war seriously, turning our armed forces into glorified babysitters, and failing to confront states that we know without a doubt are conducting acts of war against us with regularity and malicious intent.

- By insisting that my grandmother be subject to invasive search at the hands of lazy, untrustworthy, and ineffective government bureaucrats every time she wants to visit, while simultaneously insisting that Mexicans flooding over the border be subject to no inspection whatsoever.

- By publicly buying into the global warming fraud.

- By failing to offer new leadership after the old leadership has been rejected by the electorate.

- By devoting party funds to defeating conservatives in favor of liberals in every possible primary.

etc., etc., etc.

If I made a complete summary list in this manner in which the GOP and the Bush admin is undermining conservatism, it would be many times longer than this article.

Needs to be said again..

[Timberwolf]

...and again...

How some "conservatives" hurt conservatism:

- By telling Americans that there are jobs they just won't do, undermining the moral work ethic that was the foundation of our nation's rise to historically unprecedented prosperity.

- By campaigning on promises of small government, only to turn into pigs at the trough with an expertise that even Ted Kennedy could admire.

- By putting all your political chips in one basket, the Iraq War basket, then undermining the national security argument by not pursuing the war seriously, turning our armed forces into glorified babysitters, and failing to confront states that we know without a doubt are conducting acts of war against us with regularity and malicious intent.

- By insisting that my grandmother be subject to invasive search at the hands of lazy, untrustworthy, and ineffective government bureaucrats every time she wants to visit, while simultaneously insisting that Mexicans flooding over the border be subject to no inspection whatsoever.

- By publicly buying into the global warming fraud.

- By failing to offer new leadership after the old leadership has been rejected by the electorate.

- By devoting party funds to defeating conservatives in favor of liberals in every possible primary.

etc., etc., etc.

If I made a complete summary list in this manner in which the GOP and the Bush admin is undermining conservatism, it would be many times longer than this article.

[thoughtomator]

I guess my brand of patriotic conservatism/libertarianism isn't going to get me run out on a rail here, like I was from more than one site that has "conservative" confused with "faithful and undissenting servant of the Republican party"... guess I'll hang around, and put up my favorite avatar.

Thanks for making me feel welcome.

[Tracker2001]

I don't know how I missed your comments earlier thoughtomater, I agree with everything you listed above.

Well said.:claps: