Modern Political Conservatism: A Preliminary Obituary

[David Edward Bloch]

 

First, let me describe what I believe to be traditional or true political conservatism.  True political conservatism has five core principles: (1) Respect for the Constitution and its literal interpretation, (2) Limited federal government and respect for state’s rights, (3) Fiscal responsibility - low taxes, balanced budget, and low debt, (4) Individual liberty – defense of the Bill of Rights, and (5) A strong military.  The word conservatism, of course, may also apply to religious and moral values, but I limit my discussion to political conservatism and in this article when I refer to conservatism I mean political conservatism.

Modern conservatism (MC) is a complete fraud, executed on a massive scale by the ruling elites of the Republican Party, the media talking heads, so-called “think tanks,” and various other ancillary organizations and foundations.  It is a coordinated network of people with money, power, and various special interests.  MC is essentially the Republican Party version of socialism. MC has stolen the good name of true conservatism and distorted it beyond all recognition. MC can trace its roots to Richard Nixon who greatly expanded federal government and regulatory agencies, and instituted price controls.  Gerald Ford/ Nelson Rockefeller continued reinforcing MC in the mid 1970’s. However, true conservatism emerged under Ronald Reagan who cut taxes and built up the military.  These actions pulled the country out of a debilitating economic recession and a national humiliating foreign hostage situation with Iran. The country experienced eight years of domestic economic prosperity and foreign success, including the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

The tremendous gains that were earned by adhering to true conservative principles by Reagan was completely squandered by George H.W. Bush who became president right after Reagan.  Bush immediately started governing as a Modern Conservative.  He branded it “Compassionate Conservatism” including the puzzling mystical phrase “a thousand points of light.”  He wanted a “kinder, gentler nation.”  Bush campaigned on the promise, “read my lips – no new taxes” but once elected, he betrayed those who elected him and raised taxes. He was a one-term president.  Eight years following his father, George “Dubbya” Bush became president. He continued pushing MC by expanding federal government and welfare systems that increased the national debt by FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS. He took unpresented presidential action to interfere in the free market place by spending $800 BILLION to bail out failing banks and auto companies. He brazenly and proudly stated his illogic for doing this as, I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.”  Bush also plunged the U.S. into an unnecessary and disastrous Middle East war costing $2 TRILLION and the loss of thousands of American soldiers.  The result of the war was the rise of Islamic terrorism.  This was a blunder of historic proportions by a modern Republican Party “conservative”.   From 1988 until 2016, 28 years, the Republican Party Elites worked towards deceiving their base electorate by surreptitiously moving the Party towards socialism by disguising it as “Modern Conservatism”.

MC Republicans do not have the fortitude, intelligence, or desire to govern by true conservative principles – they are lazy, soft, and cowardly.   The Republican Party’s top priority is what is best for preserving the Republican Party, rather than what is best for the United States.   Republicans do not want to confront the Democrat Socialist Party, so they surrender to it.  Republicans have taken the path of least resistance by becoming deceivers and actors to their electorate base.  After surrendering to the Democrat opposition, they “spin” their actions to their base electorate as great victories at the same time claiming to be staunch “conservatives.” They say one thing to We the People to secure enough votes to gain public office and power, but then their actions produce legislation that their wealthy donors demand, especially for open borders.  Let me provide two perfect examples of the Republican MC.

Paul Ryan, a failed Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2012, was selected as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative in 2015 after Republican socialist cry-baby John Boehner resigned in disgrace.  Boehner was completely ineffective in using the Constitutional powers  granted to the House of Representatives in the Constitution  to reign in Obama’s expansionist and lawless executive actions.  Ryan was selected with overwhelming support of the House “Freedom Caucus” which supposedly consists of 40 of the most conservative members in the Republican Party.  Ryan was unanimously promoted by Republican Party leaders as “The Conservative” to fight for conservative values. The conservative media and intelligentsia also unanimously approved of Ryan as the new leader of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.  However, less than one month after becoming Speaker of the House, Ryan pushed through a disastrous “Omnibus Spending Bill” authorizing Obama to spend money to run the government for the following year.  What did this spending bill contain?  Obama got everything he wanted; he was not denied anything:  (1) Ryan’s Bill will add $1Trillion to the national debt (in violation of conservative principle #3 – Lack of fiscal responsibility), (2) Ryan’s Bill will fully fund Obama’s DREAMER executive action giving illegal immigrants a pathway to amnesty and citizenship, even though the executive action was ruled to be unconstitutional by a Federal Court (Obama is appealing). (3) Ryan’s Bill fully funds Obamacare. Republicans have campaigned on and pledged to repeal/replace/fight against it. (4) Ryan’s Bill does not contain any money for border security to stop the entry of hundreds of thousands of illegals crossing the southern border each year, even though Republicans say they are the party of law and order. Ryan is a very big hypocrite.  He is an Open Borders advocate refusing to fortify the border yet lives in a house that has a fence around his property with security guards. (5) Ryan’s bill provides funds in excess of a BILLION DOLLARS to relocate and provide for 300,000 “Muslim refugees” from the Middle East into the U.S. in one year despite the absolute certainty that many of these people will be terrorists.  Ryan shuts down all opposition discussion regarding his support of illegal immigration, amnesty, pathway to citizenship, and open borders by simply saying “That’s not who we are.”  (6) Ryan’s bill will fully fund all of the the 380 “Sanctuary Cities” around the U.S. that provide protection to illegal aliens who  commit crimes in these cities by  releasing them rather than turning them over to the proper federal immigration authorities (ICE) for deportation proceedings.  (7) Ryan’s bill supports Obama’s shrinking of the military and dismissing many military soldiers from the services.  (8) Finally, there was no reduction of government, instead the government was expanded by eliminating the “Sequester Spending Cuts” of two years earlier, except for the military of course.    

And on top of all this Ryan developed his bill secretly behind closed doors with only a few elected members, including Democrats in a few days duration and then presented it to the full body of 435 members and demanded it be approved immediately with almost no meaningful discussion.   Two days later in a midnight secession, before anyone had a chance to thoroughly read and comprehend it, Ryan’s Bill was approved with the majority support of the Socialist Republicans and a majority support of the Socialist Democrats.  Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who also claims to be a conservative, dutifully spearheaded the quick effort to approve the bill in the Republican majority controlled Senate.  True to his “conservative” credentials, Ryan spun the disastrous pork filled, budget busting, law violating, spending bill as a win for conservatives and conservative values because it lifted the ban on domestic oil exploration which Obama had put in place by an executive order. 

The second example is MC Republicans undermining and giving away United States sovereignty by supporting the catastrophic Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).  The TPP is promoted as a free trade treaty between the U.S. and several Pacific nations.  Obama signed the treaty and wants the Republican led senate to approve the treaty WITHOUT BEING ALLOWED TO READ THE TREATY.  The treaty is kept locked and guarded in a basement vault and only select senators are allowed to read it.  Taking  handwritten notes from the vault is not allowed.  Of course, the United States citizenry (We the People) are strictly forbidden to see it.  Republicans are complicit in this treachery bordering on treason by allowing a “fast track” senate procedure where discussion is extremely limited and the treaty needs only a simple 51 votes to pass instead of the 67 votes required by all treaty approvals as specified in the Constitution.  The TPP in itself provides for a globalist governing body which has the power to make laws and rules that every signature nation must abide by and  has the authority to change those rules at any time. The U.S. gets only one vote in this body.  This TPP governing body may undermine U.S. law regarding immigration, tariffs, open borders, U.S. financial markets, and corporate sovereignty.  As all Republican politicians must surely know, the U.S. Constitution allows approved treaties with foreign nations to superseded any U.S. law.  This means that the TPP governing body may write our immigration laws for us and ram it down our throats.  The TPP can make laws that allow foreign nations or persons (perhaps in regards to employment discrimination) to sue U.S. Corporations in a TPP court and the U.S. government would be bound to enforce that court’s decision and judgment.  The TPP is an unbounded assault on U.S. sovereignty, which the socialist Republican globalists, who deceivingly refer to themselves as modern conservatives, whole-heartedly embrace.

Who are these MC Republican politicians? They are: Paul Ryan and at least 50% of Republican U.S. House of Representatives (including Candice Miller) and Mitch McConnell and at least 90% of Republican U.S. Senators.   Some specific senator names are: “Gang of Eight” Amnesty/Open Border advocates, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, and Marco Rubio (Flake and Rubio are two recently elected Tea Party favorites).  Two other Tea Party backed senators, Ben Sasse, and Ted Cruz also are MC Republicans. Senator Curz’s wife is a Wall Street Banker Goldman Sachs executive and a long time ranking member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) – a One-World-Order globalist open borders organization.  Senator Cruz is on video advocating for increasing H1-B visas 500% from 60,000/year to 300,000/year, before he was against it, and voted to approve TPP before he voted against it. Goldman Sachs granted him a $1 million, zero interest personal loan.  The Tea Party is 0-4 in recent senate races helping to elect MC candidates.

Then there is the MC intelligentsia.  These are the TV talking heads, who have built careers explaining and supporting MC.  They too have a vested interest in promoting MC.  Their million dollar salaries for TV appearances, book deals, and semi-celebrity status at Washington DC cocktail parties depend on keeping MC alive.  A small sampling of these people include: Charles Krauthammer (whose book should have been titled “Things that Don’t Matter’), George Will, Britt Hume, Stephen Hays, Rich Lowry, Billy Kristol, and Glenn “The Proselytizer”  Beck, to name only the tip of the iceberg.  Old political failures include such people as Mitt Romney and Bob Dole. The rigid ideologically modern conservative organizations include, The National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Club for Growth, The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and many more.

Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. President 1952-1960, and a true conservative, upon departing office warned of the growing threat of the “Military-Industrial” complex.  That was sound advice then.  Today, that warning should be expanded to warn against the “Political-Industrial” complex; more commonly known as crony capitalism.  But, crony capitalism is really just another name  for Modern Conservatism, the application of which eventually terminates in full blown socialism.

But, there is good news.  The voting public has recognized this terrible MC failure and is abandoning  it en masse before it becomes a catastrophic failure .  Donald J. Trump, the anti-MC, offering an alternative is the leading 2016 Republican Presidential Primary candidate with the most popular votes, the most delegates, and the most primary state victories - more than double the victories of his nearest competitor.  U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who I consider to be the only real true conservative in the U.S. Senate enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Trump.  But, there is a fierce fight ahead.  All of the ruling class Republican elite MC politicians, MC media talking heads, MC consultants and MC donors that have invested their money, time, reputation, and careers in MC will not go away quietly.  They will fight to destroy anybody and anything that threatens to destroy the MC monstrosity that they have painstakingly created over a few decades.  What MC advocates fear most is having to confront the real fact that they have wasted their lives supporting a dead end political philosophy that will ultimately end up discredited on the trash heap of history. The actual obituary date of Modern Conservativism is near. For the sake of the United States, let’s hope that date is very soon.

Bye, bye MC.