…Still smells like technocratic tyranny.
I’ve been more direct lately about my concerns that the GOP establishment is making an intentional effort to redefine conservatism as a vibrant, ideas-driven statist centrism — while relegating actual conservatism / classical liberalism to a kind of fringe status, where bitterclingers clutch to the security blanket of outdated principles and comforting, ideological purity, stubborn in their quaint belief that government can’t really ever be a force for good.
To that end, I offer you Jeb Bush, writing in National Review:
First above all is our fundamental belief in the individual as the center of opportunity and ideological energy. We do not believe that government creates prosperity or drives it. Like the founders of our country, we know a self-regulating and responsible people is essential to limit the scope and ambition of government. We resist the urge to substitute regulations and governmental directives for entrepreneurial creativity and civic service. We believe that the best government is that which is smallest and the most just government is that which treats all citizens and entities equally, with no special favors and no special sanctions.
We believe that there is no way for leaders to direct the dreams and ambitions of 312 million Americans — and so we believe fundamentally in freedom. Let individuals direct themselves to whatever heights they aspire to reach, and let them enjoy the benefits of their success because they bear significant responsibility for the risks they take.
This is different than the approach of President Obama, as he has made clear through policies that place greater power and resources behind the government at the expense of the individual. So the distinction will be obvious.
But to make sure that we do not lose the advantage of that clear difference, we must not layer onto our fundamental beliefs thick black lines of ideology — black lines that we do not allow ourselves to cross. Those black lines can be comforting, I understand. They provide certainty and stability and ideological purity. But they also restrict the way we think about problems, and make more difficult the kind of reform-minded free thinking that has defined the conservative movement for the last 50 years.
Thick black lines of ideology are good at keeping people in, but they are also good at keeping people out. And our party can’t win if we keep people out. Our goal is not to assemble a small army of purists. We need a nation of converts. We have seen the other way of governing. It has had its day. It has made its best case. It has failed.
So then, to summarize: we won’t abandon first principles — at least, not when those principles remain convenient and can be referred to in general and purely in the abstract. When adherence to those first principles start keeping the centrists, moderates, and independents from embracing the GOP, however, we need to be willing to push those principles to the side, bracket them, gray them out a bit, they’re being so unseemly thick and black — and allow ourselves the free-thinking, reform-minded permission to ignore those principles in order to gain power and take control of the government, where we can implement our fresh ideas about how an expansive, technocratic government can work to find solutions to big problems. Because frankly, selling our principles is more time-consuming and intellectually onerous than simply compromising them and then clapping ourselves on the back for being open-minded enough to do so — for being willing to embrace activist government, despite the distrust of an expansive federal power by a “small army of purists” that, in the end, we don’t want representing the GOP.
Do I have that about right?
Listen: the GOP doesn’t want conservatives except when it needs their votes. And they count on our votes because they recognize that we’ll see the alternative — a more sudden devolution into a form of big government statist tyranny — as even worse than the slow-walking, feel-good “compassionate conservatism” that they’re peddling.
The GOP establishment despises the TEA Party almost as much as Obama does. They despise the presumptuous uprising of the plebes who don’t know the first thing about how DC works and what’s required to get things done.
— Without once acknowledging that many of us don’t want them to get things done — that instead, what we want is for them to safeguard our liberties, police our borders, and let individuals operating freely get things done, unmolested by the heavy groping hands of an intrusive federal authority.
Continues Bush:
Let’s have a good, open debate about the way forward, the way upwards. The Republican party can afford to have these discussions. And I don’t think America can afford for us not to.
Fine: let’s. But we can’t “have a good, open debate about the way forward” unless and until the establishment GOP makes clear its desire to be rid of the TEA Party types who swept them back into power in the House in 2010.
At which point we have a choice: stay with the GOP and try to reform it from within; or else strike out on our own — confident in the core principles of classical liberalism, and confident that we’ll be able to make the case that both the GOP and the Democrats are committed to expansive centralized government and a permanent ruling class — and that left to their own devices, both will continue to press forward until we are a nation of subjects, albeit in the case of the Republicans, subjects who pay lower taxes.
The mouthpieces for conservatism in the current intellectual climate are in many cases not what they’re presenting themselves as.
Judging by the trajectory of this site, I’m losing this argument. But that fact in and of itself doesn’t make me wrong. Just a bit sad.
(h/t Mark Levin)
Precisely why I seldom pay attention to Jeb. He’s bush league, to coin an pun.
“. . . they also restrict the way we think . . . ”
They restrict.
They. (Hi, mr. strawman!)
So, that appeal to nature as font, as restrictive limit, that was just a hand-wave, Jeb? Is that the gist? Gotcha.
Sorry, Jebediah. Couldn’t make my way through those scary-sounding “thick, black lines” of bullshit.
Well, it looks like that commenters on NRO are not buying what Jeb is shoveling.
Wonder if he’ll read them at all?
Isn’t is kind of funny though that Jeb would speak of “the way we think” yet not draw the connections to his beloved “ideology”?
Mark sort of plowed the ground of ideology a bit, kicking aside a stone here and there, on account of ideology seems such an important word for Jeb (so important, it ought to wear a tiny lapel button that reads “I’m important!”, just so we rubes don’t miss it), but my what a twisted yet boring piece of ground that is. So boring, in fact, that I’d bet Jeb himself has little if any idea where the ground is nor of what its constituents consist, despite which Jeb will continue to proclaim “Important!”. Some things can’t be helped, you see — because: History.
Thanks for that Jeb.
“. . . they also restrict the way we think . . . ”
No, they restrict the way you ACT just like all ethical frameworks should. And your reward for following those guidelines is that your supporters have faith in your ideology and don’t see you as an empty manipulator and liar.
Jeb Bush doesn’t have any higher office ambitions, does he? Now he can go play golf with Juan McAmnesty McClimateFraud McLame, and they can compare their bimbo wives and slut daughters.
Isn’t that a remarkable perspective, the one held by DC insiders? What a corruption of the very nation itself.
What’s needed — if this isn’t itself taken as tantamount to insanity — is a Party whose sole focus is dismantling prior legislation. A party that runs, is elected, and operates to get less than “something done”.
To put it another way Jeb, those thick black lines showed up about the time we realized that we couldn’t trust you anymore. If you cross those then why should we support you? What is your link to us? Why should we see you as our representative?
“We want the federal government to focus on its limited, Constitutionally enumerate powers. We want to be left alone to live our lives in peace, on our own terms, without an army of bureaucrats trying to trip us up at every turning. We want to help our less fortunate neighbors because they are deserving, and we are good people — not because we are forced to, and they are entitled.”
What part of the above “thick black lines of ideology” is likely to drive people away? It’s a simple restatement of our founding principles, and the fact that some find it objectionable at all is an indictment of the programming that we’ve allowed to take root in our society.
You want a nation of converts, Jeb? Just offer ’em the freedom and dignity that has been stripped from them over the past few generations. You’ll have more fucking converts than an Islamic bake sale/sword demonstration.
Only perhaps judging by the trajectory of this site, Jeff. If that trajectory is a concern, we should talk and I think our group should redesign the site and its approach to the argument.
It’s not at all the message, which should really be resurgent just about now. It may just be the marketing.
What I find revealing is that Jeb, for all his talent as a good governor, has embraced this kind of anti-ideological “pragmatism”. Yes, it is all well and good to hang out in the church of free markets and limited government, but out on the street, why not sample a little government bullying from time to time if it gets the results you desire without all the frustration of trying to persuade?
Again, we are giving into the Left narrative that [conservative] Ideology is BAD EVIL H8TFULL just because it is “ideology” that might Stand-in-the-Way(tm).
it depends on what he’s talking about I guess … he’s as shit at the vision thing as his daddy…
and he’s not actually saying very much here
this sounds mostly like he’s become a disciple of Meghan’s coward daddy’s attention whore daughter
“Let’s have a good, open debate about the way forward, the way upwards. The Republican party can afford to have these discussions. And I don’t think America can afford for us not to.”
Can anyone imagine Jeb Bush participating in, let alone leading a discussion about the being of being, or alternatively, of being, becoming and nonbeing? Anyone? I don’t even think Jeb could imagine that. So I don’t think he is all that serious.
– There is a more incideous desease at work here, where the willingness to compromise because it might seem “smart” or easier as Darleen writes is the symptoms of that deasease.
– Not only is that thinking behind the curve, coming as it does at a time when Progressivisim appears to be faltering since all of their policies are pure failures, the delayed reponse belies a total lack of real leadership. True leadership would be thinking about the big picture, and the bad ideas that got us here, not talking about how to adjust to the current fads.
– But then, it was a lack of leadership at every level that caused it all in the first place, so if we have a reason to be pwssimistic that would be it.
– Wisconsin/San Diego/San Jose showed the way. as did the Tea party vote in 2010. But keadership takes courage, and thats something you have in your DNA, you can;t br taught that.
– So the real question is do we have the courage to lead anymore.
RAAAAACIST!
We ARE “…a nation of converts.”
I think RAH missed a distinction. There are those who want to control others because they think they know all, and those who want to be controlled by others because they think they know nothing — and then there are those who want only to be left alone by others because GET OFFA MY LAWN!
Those black lines can be comforting, I understand. They provide certainty and stability and ideological purity. But they also restrict the way we think about problems, and make more difficult the kind of reform-minded free thinking that has defined the conservative movement for the last 50 years.
With the exception of some of Reagan’s era, and I say only some, what has the last fifty years of Jebby’s favorite party given us? Add your own favorites.
Nixon
EPA
EEOC
Ford and WIN buttons
Bush 41
David Souter
A thousand points of light
No new taxes, ahem
Bush 43
DHS
TSA
No Child Left Behind
Compassionate conservatism and public funding for religious based initiatives
Steel tariffs
Incompetent war management
Medicare Part D
…etc.
The wonders of GOP reform are breathtaking. And those black lines of ideology are racist, of course.
They despise the presumptuous uprising of the plebes who don’t know the first thing about how DC works and what’s required to get things done.
Naturally. By the way, Vladimir Ulyanov phones to say he’s known real chefs, and Jeb Bush is no chef. He can’t even make an omelette.
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky phoned to volunteer his services to take HowDC Works down to the basement. Jeb can come too, if he like.
Lil Jebby can use any words he wants to try to justify tyranny but I say:
“Give me thick black lines of Liberty or give me death”….
Why is it so easy to imagine Jeb whispering advice in Henry II’s ear on how to rid the realm of a meddlesome priest?
Funny, I’ve never thought to myself, “I wonder what Jeb thinks we should do? If only he would pen an editorial!”
OT: Politico writer fired for making dick jokes about Ann Romney. Stay classy, dems!
Shorter Jeb Bush: No Labels. OK–no conservative labels.
For years I said the wrong Bush son became president.
My bad.
The comments at the NR article sound like the commenters here. That’s a good sign, at least.
And besides, your priniciples aren’t really even ours in the first place, but if that’s what you bitter-clinging teatards out there in Jesusland want to hear from us, then by damn, that’s what we’ll tell you. And anything else you want to hear to make you vote for us. So we can get back to the business of running the country that you’re so clearly not suited for, not like us, anyways. Because if you were, you’d already be one of us.
One of us
One of us
Ooga-ga-ga
Ooga-ga-ga
Besides, what are you going to do? STAY HOME?!? Go third party? Third parties are for losers!
So take your ass-fucking and like it.
And if you’re good little boys and girls, maybe we’ll use some lube next time.
I’m a vote for Romney and like it
Unless you decide to vote for Romney and not like it.
One never knows with you.
abc baby you and me girl
Ernst breaks out the Freaks reference!
Bravo.
What’s this crap I keep hearing about Obama phones? Free cell phones paid for by phone and cable fees that are handed out to qualified (poverty) individuals that are used to push political messages and ACTUALLY CALLED OBAMA PHONES?
Apparently Rush mentioned them today.
I looked it up and found this:
http://factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/
So it’s bogus right? An urban legend. A dumb distraction made from the terror fantasies of bitterclingerjesusluddites right? And the programs was started Bush as an expansion of a Clinton program and it dates back to WIlson. So take that wingnut! try being more reality based!
And yet…
http://obamaphone.net/
So what is THIS? Is this sabotage? A crank? Is it real? WTF?
It’s not a .gov site.
Is this just targeted marketing?
Obama Phones are cell phones given to people with the level of income that would allow them to collect food stamps. They are given the phone and 100-200 minutes per month( i forget which) I think the program was authorized during the first stimulus.
Here’s more.
And exactly why does Jeb feel the need to weigh in right now? Perhaps he fears an unexpected accident for Romney? Sort of like the way O keeps a food taster around when dining with his SoS?
Jeb prolly feels irrelevant. Poppy and Dubya just got a whole lotta press and ate lunch with O’s.
Or maybe he wants to be veep.
Unbelievable.
Under what part of the f’in’ Constitution was this authorized?
Under what part of the f’in’ Constitution was this authorized?
see section 3 subpart f of the “good and plenty” clause.
Oh good God! If Mitt picks Jeb as his VP, I’m not voting for either one.
He should pick McClintock.
Just a guess, but I think this:
is all about borders and immigration and us nativist know-nothings racist xenophobes had bettter not fuck up the good thing Romney’s got going by being too strident because those people are the future.
Good news. The locals station is reporting prop 29 (cig tax) was defeated 50.3% to 49.7%.
Fat people rule!
Just a guess, but I think this:
shouldn’t that be posted on the projection thread?
Thick black lines of ideology a
the color of the line is red and karlthemarxist is its line drawer
if you wanna see thick green lines of ideology go see algore
I have moments when I just want to say a pox on both their houses and sit back and watch everything burn.
Let Obama get reelected, let the House go back to the Dems.
Let them get their every wish and when the dust settles as this country collapses into the balkanized districts full of homogenous diversity (there’s a dichotomy) that they seem to love so much (as long as they don’t experience any) I’d get to watch them squawk and flutter about with no clue how to fix what they’ve broken while I would get to have a massive attack of schadenfreude.
But then I realize that it would be folks like me who would be hardest hit and required to repair what could be repaired with long hours and hard work that will never get appreciated or acknowledged.
So I continue to appear to have been seduced by the slow dance the Republicans have become convinced is the only choice left us and make the choices that delay but do not avoid the final denouement.
Maybe, I don’t know.
You can be damn sure it won’t be filed under “language/intentionalism,” however.
that delay but do not avoid the final denouement.
gotta keep fighting because 2014 will make 2010 look like easy street
He should pick McClintock.
Tom McClintock is my congressdude. He might have been Lieutenant Governor in 2006, and perhaps from there Governor one day, if Ah-nold had not stabbed him in the back politically.
What’re you talking about? Tom McClintock is a divisive, rightwing nutjob who scares away moderates and independents. He’s a stands-on-principles extremist who does nothing but make it harder for all the sane, pragmatic Republics who just want to work with Democrats in a spirit of bipartisan comity.
Arnold did you a favor, just like Karl Rove did Delaware when he chopped that witch-woman off at her wooden ankles.
The point is serious, in spite of the tone.
You forgot the part about Karl Rove and cutting Tom Tancredo and the border patriots off at the knees too, in order to pander to people who will only hate Karl Rove anyway.
Or he just wants more cheap gardeners and maids.
Good news. The locals station is reporting prop 29 (cig tax) was defeated 50.3% to 49.7%.
I bet if the Health Police had proposed a smoke tax whose revenues only went into the Cali General Fund and didn’t create a whole new research bureaucracy, it probably would have passed easily. But the nanny statists overreached.
My personal favorite is Arlen Specter not lifting a finger to help Rick Santorum after Santorum damaged himself with his own base by supporting Specter instead of Toomey.
But yeah, there’s a lot of that pandering going around GOP circles these days.