What's a "conservative?" Was Ronald Reagan a conservative? It seems like
every Republican these days wants to say that he is like Ronald Reagan.
My understanding of a conservative was always a proponent for smaller government and controlled spending and taxing.
I am not sure how much of the debt can be layed at Ronald Reagan's feet. He had a democratically controlled congress, and in our system of Government the congress has the purse strings. Most modern conservatives will say the same thing. It was always Reaga's perogotive to veto spending bills which he did do on occasion.
Everyone likes to give credit to Bill Clinton for eliminating the deficit, but don't forget that he did that with a Republican congress, again that stands up to the concept that a conservative wants to control spending.
Enter Bush, Bush has been the most fiscally liberal republican president in history, additionally, he has expanded Government something most conservatives do not stand for. The department of Homeland security was a waste of money and resources in retrospect for instance.
My view is that doubling the national debt in 8 years is not conservative,
so I don't understand the current definition.
I agree, but no one has claimed that the democratically controlled congress in the 80s nor the present administration is conservative.
We hear plenty of talk about "social conservatism" as distinct from
"fiscal conservatism." The President has never, in my lifetime, spent
much of his energy rallying for any social issues. I see the whole social
side of the Presidency as a ruse to win votes because candidates seem to
be a lot more concerned about social issues before an election than
afterward.
In my opinion, the socially conservative movement has more to do with the appointment of judges and policy decisions in general. There are always social issues that dovetail into legal and Constitutional areas that are in direct control of the President.
I think fiscal conservatism is a lot more important, but who
is fiscally conservative these days? It seems like everyone wants to
control the flow of money and he wants it to flow, a lot, into the hands
of his supporters, friends, his state, etc.
Yeah, that is indeed an issue.
You might be able to find about one guy in congress who would be willing
to decline federal funds for a project in his state because he doesn't
believe that it's the proper role of government to fund such things. But
when it's someone else's state, you can be sure that he'll oppose it. I
see no difference between Republicans and Democrats on this kind of thing.
They all want the pork.
I don't disagree, but there are a lot of spending bills that are passed that have nothing to do with the pork to an individual congressman's state. Those bills are the ones I think require more scrutiny. The upcoming stimulus package is one of them. No representative wants to be on the wrong side of a bill, but sometimes they should be on the wrong side.
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