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Truth Warrior
11-12-2008, 06:39 AM
Conservatives Follow the Leader


by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. (http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/mailto:lewrockwell@mac.com)


The relationship between the Bush administration and the conservative movement was hardly unexpected. Conservatives were disappointed when George W. Bush was nominated, since he is not a card-carrier. But when The Democrat arrived on the scene, pushing the usual panoply of bad ideas, conservatives changed their tune and backed the GOP. They always do. Indeed, they assembled in full force to elect Bush.

Of course, he moved left after the election. Many months went by before Bush did what every Republican president does: invite “movement leaders” to the White House for a special briefing. Craven doesn’t quite describe it. Conservatives will sell their firstborn to get a meeting at the White House. The leaders emerged to tell their followers and the press that they had inside information that the Bush administration was on the right track, so there was nothing to worry about. We can easily imagine Bush’s staff guffawing at these fools after they left the room.

After their meeting, the new conservative love for the GOP president lasted for a couple of years, and then it was time for another election and the whole charade started over again. Conservatives issued a warning that the president had better shape up or he wouldn’t earn their support. So they got another meeting and a photo op and again promised fealty to the Republican Leviathan. In the end, of course, they have nowhere else to turn. No matter how dreadful the president is, conservatives fear the alternative more. So they end up as willing propagandists for the regime.

But this reliable support by conservatives for the Republican president confronts what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance,” which is to say that people will not forever live with a massive contradiction between what they do and what they believe. Eventually, the beliefs come around. So it has been for the conservatives who, in the 1990s, blasted Clinton’s big budgets and nation-building and then ended up celebrating far larger budgets and a vaster military empire around the world. The result has been an amazing intellectual bankruptcy on the Right.

The culminating event was the financial bailout of the Wall Street plutocrats, which contradicts everything that conservatives allegedly stand for. It was socialistic in every way. It rewarded market failures. It ripped off average families for the sake of billionaires. It was the worst form of Keynesian planning. It was an open conflict of interest, as the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs funneled vast sums to Goldman Sachs. It had exactly zero chance of helping the economy. In fact, by draining productive private resources necessary for economic recovery, it makes a bad situation worse.


Read the rest of the article (http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/17/00019/)



November 12, 2008


Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail (http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/mailto:lewrockwell@mac.com)] is founder and president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute (http://www.mises.org/) in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com (http://www.lewrockwell.com/), and author of Speaking of Liberty (http://www.mises.org/store/Speaking-of-Liberty-P173C0.aspx?AFID=14).


Copyright © 2008 The American Conservative


Lew Rockwell Archives (http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/rockwell-arch.html)

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Truth Warrior
11-12-2008, 04:25 PM
bump

The_Orlonater
11-12-2008, 04:56 PM
Great article, it's ironic how the neocons loosely throw around the term"socialist" when they are some of the biggest socialists.(Or closet socialists ;))

Truth Warrior
11-12-2008, 05:00 PM
Great article, it's ironic how the neocons loosely throw around the term"socialist" when they are some of the biggest socialists.(Or closet socialists ;)) Misdirection is a typical bogus political tactic. :p

The_Orlonater
11-12-2008, 05:09 PM
It is a cult. Ugh, why won't more people just come together and secede?

Truth Warrior
11-12-2008, 05:18 PM
It is a cult. Ugh, why won't more people just come together and secede? FEAR!! Better the devil you know, RULES most. Same as in 1776. :(

Andrew-Austin
11-12-2008, 05:19 PM
Now, it is not the case that conservatives surrendered every modicum of concern for human freedom. The problem is that the issue is low on their list of priorities. They are like someone ordering from a menu at a restaurant. Yes, he likes potatoes and vegetables, but the meat and dessert always appear more exciting. By the time he eats the stuff he really likes, there is no room left for the things that are needed. You know this if you have ever been to a conservative gathering. The sessions on taxes or trade attract a handful of geeks. But let someone get up to decry pornography and the evil of Islam—or Communism or any other foreign enemy of the day—and the multitudes will scream with approval.

Nice analogy, really sums up the neocon base. One high cholesterol fear burger please, I'd like for a fascist heart attack to surprise me one day.



It is a cult. Ugh, why won't more people just come together and secede?

Sorry I lol'd when I saw your location is Chicago.

The_Orlonater
11-12-2008, 05:20 PM
FEAR!! Better the devil you know, RULES most. Same as in 1776. :(

The Republican Party is lost, there's no way we're going to take it back. People decide to avoid the LP this election, meh. I don't want to pay this debt off, or live in this authoritarian state.

Truth Warrior
11-12-2008, 06:40 PM
The Republican Party is lost, there's no way we're going to take it back. People decide to avoid the LP this election, meh. I don't want to pay this debt off, or live in this authoritarian state. I've just been saying that for some DECADES now. ;) And the sheeple sleep. :p

The_Orlonater
11-12-2008, 09:28 PM
Sorry I lol'd when I saw your location is Chicago.

Yeah, it happens.

heavenlyboy34
11-12-2008, 09:30 PM
The Republican Party is lost, there's no way we're going to take it back. People decide to avoid the LP this election, meh. I don't want to pay this debt off, or live in this authoritarian state.

I keep saying this, but certain members (they know who they are) continue to live in denial. :rolleyes::(

Truth Warrior
11-13-2008, 01:20 PM
bump

Truth Warrior
11-13-2008, 03:45 PM
bump bump