I was recently in a forum arguing with an Obama supporter about what the economic future held. He derided me for my pessimism. Until I calmly pointed out that no other nation in history has ever gained prosperity by large increases in spending, and that inflation always follows. As i said “I have history on my side”

And we have quite a lot of history. This is not rocket surgery, we know what works and what doesn’t. All it takes is not to be blinded by an ideology that puts emotion ahead of common sense.

We know how to make a good society; Low marginal tax rates, Limited government intrusion, sound money policies, Free trade, freedom of association. And decentralized government.

It is just that these things are not flashy or romantic. They are practical.

Accountability IMHO is the true essential element of conservatism. Life experience brings about an understanding of resposibility and how actions have consequences. As you note, the pro-choice movement disregards the emotional wound which may never heal – a position that necessarily ignores accountability for the consequence of the action.

The liberals of today purposefully hide accountability under the rug. Action is in and of itself the only focus as action is what is used to maintain power. The New Deal teaches this – the action of providing welfare to the unfortunate (whether based on logic, emotion or even faith) is laudable, but when done through the auspices of government it created a dependancy class. Accountability — for both provider and provided for — was not a priority and now that lack of accountability is used for gain to maintain power.

On a grander scale, the Constitution requires an adherence to its principles (accountability) to maintain its effectiveness and relevance. When it is diluted, distorted and perverted accountability is lost.

Well done Dan, but I think you could have taken it one step further.

It would be fascinating to see the core elements of a liberal and moderate in contrast to this. Unfortunately that is not possible. A liberal will never express his core values because he does not want anyone to know his real goals. And of course a moderate does not have any principles that last past the next opinion poll or mood of the moment.

Dan,

In all of your document I believe what is missing is motivation.

I think now would be a good time to own up to the fact that our history shows that some men seek office to obtain and maintain power, where others have sought to public office to seek authority to keep things moving along well and seek the interests of all Americans.

In my estimation current American politics has been centered on strong rule utilitarianism and natural law whether coming from the left or the right. The difference is motivation. It seems to me that the left has always been about radicalizing the rational will of the individual to justify behavior that is considered out of norm. The right has always attempted to use empiricism to explain the necessity of understanding history, and yet they dilute by utilizing rational reductionism when it comes to pragmatism by becoming outcome speculators.

The issue at hand is that our founders were not utilitarian so much as they were for the rights of individualism to be protected by a federalist government based upon representation and geography. I think you lightly mentioned this when discussing the fact that libertarianism asks questions but provides no answers.

In my view this comeback that we hope is eventual and all were doing is fighting for limited time in the minority is utterly foolish.

Freedom is at the heart of all of this. I believe that conservatives are having an ethical identity crisis, because they continue to sell out core values for the sake of pragmatism.

Your castle in the sky analogy doesn’t resonate with me in the least. Neither does the castle rooted in the ground.

I view this discussion of comeback from an entirely different perspective. I believe that the 2008 Election was the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. By that I mean politics in the United States has always stemmed from the people. What this last election has done has indeed proven that the people have become so easily persuaded from the top down that we now have populism not a republic or even a democracy. Effectively speaking the presidency is losing its moral authority because it has become beholden to partisan policy that does not act in the interest of America, but of the party and the power.

I agree with you that our history suggests that ideas have formed by states, been tried, and successful models are replicated nationwide as you discussed in the conclusion of your meme. However I am waiting for the next state to put into resolution a political smackdown on the federal government. Is there a state out there willing to tell the King to “get off my lawn”?

My question to you is… how do you see conservatives regaining power without educating people on the loss of freedom that is taking place? Americans don’t fight until they realize their freedom is being stolen and tyranny is on the move. Thank goodness we’re not Bosheviks or French… There is no need for revolution in our country… there is a need for good people to stand up and educate others about the origin of freedom and the loss that is coming and how to prevent it.

In the mean time… I wish there was a polite way to say to all the libertarians… get over it… the system is beyond your theoretical world, work with what you have to reduce as much government as you can, and if you don’t like it… try another country.

Experience is crucial, but it needs to be combined with wisdom. I reject the time-worn adage that “wisdom comes with age.” I’ve known teenagers who were wiser than some oldster liberals I’ve run into. I do, however, acknowledge that experience comes with age, and age provides a wise person with a set of experiences from which he can draw inferences. This, I think, is a key difference between liberals and conservatives. It is why we continue to battle against liberals over such things as their “efforts to repeal the laws of economic reality to cater to demagogic appeals to ‘fairness’ and blatant nonsense like protectionism and minimum wage and rent control laws.” Liberals are born bereft of even a modicum of wisdom.