The Default of Conservatism

In her book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand discussed the problems she had with conservatives.  She viewed their ideology as flawed and based in mysticism, mostly because she was a hardcore atheist and didn’t think that using God to justify limited government was rational.  In my view it is, but only when your audience believes in God.  She also made a point that most conservatives who attain offices of high power tend to compromise their beliefs and end up not using their power to achieve the goals of limited government.

I remember reading her writings on this and thinking to myself about how much things don’t change when it comes to politics.  Sure the ideas shift from time to time, but the nature of politics and particular ideologies tends to be the same over time.  I’ve noticed that every time conservatives win major victories, they end up find that their man wasn’t all the conservative after all, just an opportunist like one of the Roosevelt presidents.  This is why I thank God that Mitt Romney bowed out last year because all the stupid talk show pundits were touting him as a true conservative when his record was anything but.

The problem with conservative politicians is that they are easily swayed by the allure of power just like anyone else is.  Or they simply weren’t conservative to begin with and only claimed to be such in order to win votes (there were at least three “frontrunner” candidates on the Republican ticket last year who fell into this category).  But despite these wolves in sheep’s clothing or weak-willed individuals who carry the conservative mantle to DC, it is ultimately the conservatives themselves who are to blame for the movement’s lack of a future right now.

Time and again, at the behest of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, the conservatives in this country are duped into believing that some significant Republican politician is a true conservative.  I remember Rush Limbaugh saying that George W. Bush was more conservative than his father.  But that proved to be factually wrong on many counts.  At least George, Sr. didn’t bailout the banks during his recession.  He merely just raised taxes.

The individuals within the conservative movement are also hung up on issues that also cause their downfall in the long-term.  I remember asking a diehard conservative if he would rather vote for a pro-life Statist-type or a pro-choice libertarian-type.  His response was the pro-life Statist.  When Dave Ramsey opened the phones last year on election day to ask who they voted for and why at least half of the callers who had voted for McCain said it was because of abortion.  Understand that I am opposed to abortion, but I dare say that a pro-choice libertarian-type would steer us in a long term direction that would eventually allow us to succeed on the abortion issue.  And never mind that the Republican party has done jackcrap about the abortion problem despite controlling the Federal government in some fashion or another most of the time since Roe v. Wade.  I just think that maybe it shouldn’t be the top priority in politics right now.  Remember that George H. W. Bush was pro-choice and made that the cornerstone of his Presidential campaign in 1980.  Laura Bush herself is pro-choice, a dirty secret that conservatives glossed over during the second Bush’s reign.

The conservative movement is dying because they continually shift ideals and compromise with the Left over things they believe are more important than liberty.  Before 9/11, the Republicans opposed the USA PATRIOT Act (although it was probably called something else).  Now they supported it but I don’t see how giving the government more power would make us safer in the long run.  There is no off switch on this kind of thing, unlike the surveillance equipment in that movie The Dark Knight.  Government programs never die and they know this, but then forget about it when it doesn’t suit their misplaced ideals.

While I view conservatives as the natural ally of the libertarian, they tend not to, mostly because of the social stances libertarians take.  Instead of accepting them as a natural ally, conservatives alienate libertarians and other fiscally conservative groups.  If they had support of the libertarians, do you think that Obama or McCain would be President now?

This is their default.  They end up allowing a Statist to win because they believe that a Statist is better than the other more extreme Statist who is running against them.  They are afraid to deny the Republican party the sum total of their voting block, which would effectively make the Republican party a “third party”.  But Statism is Statism and no matter who wins in a race like that, our liberties, our lives, and our property will be at risk.  The only real difference is that conservatives will hand it over with a smile rather than a scowl.