AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

Foxfyre wrote:

Conservatism as a ideology is first and foremost rational. It resists making decisions on feelings/emotion ...

Might be. Thanks God, our Conservatives are at least more coined by Christianity than your idols.

http://www.slate.com/id/2203800/entry/2203801/

Indeed, the only good thing about McCain is that he gave us a genuine conservative, Sarah Palin. He's like one of those insects that lives just long enough to reproduce so that the species can survive. That's why a lot of us are referring to Sarah as "The One" these days.

Like Sarah Connor in "The Terminator," Sarah Palin is destined to give birth to a new movement. That's why the Democrats are trying to kill her. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is involved somehow, too. Good Lord, I'm tired.

After showing nearly superhuman restraint throughout this campaign, which was lost the night McCain won the California primary, I am now liberated to announce that all I care about is hunting down and punishing every Republican who voted for McCain in the primaries. I have a list and am prepared to produce the names of every person who told me he was voting for McCain to the proper authorities.

Your post is interesting and informative, Walter, but it again illustrates that you can't use European definitions for 'conservative', 'liberal' etc. or their histories to define American Conservatism in 2008. Nor is the term 'Christian' useful in this context.

• since conservatism is represented in political parties more or less only by the Republican party and "lefter" ideology by the Democrats - how do you know that more voters are conservative than liberal?

These words become symbols and cliches. They are often not well reflected upon and begin to become quite useless by themselves. But I expect you knew most of that.

But I still think that this makes it difficul to discuss: everyone seems to have some -slightly- different clichés for her/his definition.

I admit that it's not easy to put a political into some short sentences.
But what just two parties representing to different (?) political ideas - I really thought it would be easier to follow .... for me.

(And I really wonder why U.S. conservatives don't form an own party ...)

I've some problems with what you understand, okie.

• since conservatism is represented in political parties more or less only by the Republican party and "lefter" ideology by the Democrats - how do you know that more voters are conservative than liberal?

• since the voter outcome on November 4 was larger than any other the last dozen years - how is that related to what you call 'apathy'?

• why are Republicans and conservatives "all over the map in regard to Palin"? Wasn't she the one chosen by McCain, a shining example of true modern American conservatism?

This is a think a key reason why Republicans are less unified, less able to pass legislation, because we tend to be more individualistic, we have our own ideas, less influenced by the masses.

Dear Friend,

The spirit of Winston Churchill was alive and well on Tuesday night at Focus on the Family Action headquarters.

You may recall that in the most desperate days of World War II " when Great Britain was being pounded daily by Hitler’s Luftwaffe " that Winston Churchill called on his countrymen not to despair from danger but to rise to the challenge.

“Do not speak of darker days,” he said. “Let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days " the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we shall all thank God that we have been allowed, each one of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable. ...”

As our incredible team of staff members watched the election results pour in on Election Night, an amazing thing happened that Churchill might have recognized. Despite some sobering disappointments, there was no mood of despair and no “bunker mentality.” Instead, a firm sense of resolve began to permeate our team " a spirited and determined recognition that now, more than ever, we must prayerfully and boldly shine the light of truth in the public arena and defend what is right.

Let me speak plainly. Our nation has never faced the kind of anti-family, pro-abortion assault that we’re likely to see in the coming weeks and months. We don’t have to guess what the Left will do now that they control Congress and the White House; they’ve told us:

President-elect Obama has promised, “The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.” That bill could wipe out every abortion restriction in state and federal law and result in an increase in abortions each year in America.
He has also pledged to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act " signed by President Clinton in 1996 " and force every state without a constitutional amendment or specific state law protecting traditional marriage to recognize same-sex marriages.
And religious freedom will be badly damaged if and when the gay lobby’s two top bills " hate crimes and Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) " become law. A veto threat is all that has stopped them before, and Obama has vowed to sign them.
To stop these tragic outcomes " and much more that I won’t take time to list right now " we must mobilize extraordinary numbers of citizens who care about upholding virtue, defending life and safeguarding religious liberty.

I mean, I have to tell you if I heard once, I heard 1,000 times from people, and I never said this, never said this on the air because you just don't say these things, but I heard a million times from people, "I'm going to vote for John McCain and, you know, I mean, he's old. Maybe we get Sarah Palin in the first term." You know what I mean?

I don't buy it, regardless of your statistical analysis.