Comments about ‘Letter: Conservatism has changed in the United States’

Bob Bennett, a man as conservative as the day is long, was booted from office because he wasn't sufficiently foaming-at-the-mouth to satisfy the Tea Party.

A person speaking before a gathering of today's Republicans who merely read to them any number of the speeches that Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower made to Republicans of different generations would be booed off the stage.

Today's conservatives prize certainty above all else - especially certainty for which there is zero supporting evidence and abundant contradictory evidence.

This infatuation with ideological loyalty and disdain for evidence-based reasoning will not only be the death of the Republican Party, it is also acid on the fabric of our democracy.

"dominated by people who believe in magical thinking." So much for the broad, benevolent "tolerance" of the left.

Roland, please explain how:

"republicans can come along for the ride, but they'll have to ride in the back of the bus"

Obamacare passed by bribery, back-room late-night deals, and parliamentary tricks

Porkulus, cash for clunkers, and virtually ALL legislation from BO's first two years being passed with NO thought of reaching across to the right

a POTUS who had the MOST liberal voting record as a senator

is nothing more than ideological purity?

The Republican party had been shifting more and more to the left for the last 40 yrs. in an effort to "reach across the aisle", and "compromise".

That got us a myriad of social programs that we can't afford.

The ONLY party that shows much effort at paying off our 16 trillion in debt is the Republican party.

The left-wing progressives like to blame things on Bush, Fox news, or talk radio. Thats because they don't want to face the fact that we can no longer afford their social programs.
They're short on plans to control government spending.

Funny how conservatives are wistful about a bygone era, but an era when so-called liberals were actually pushing the changes we now appreciate and accept in our society.

This letter represents left-wing deceitfulness at its worst. Its writer, and all commenters who support it, deserve swift and severe condemnation.

The left cannot refute the logic of the right, so it relies on personal attacks. That is the precise tactic of this letter.

The left now fears that the gullible public is finally rejecting its propaganda. That is why the left is resorting to desperate tactics like this.

DC said: "republicans can come along for the ride, but they'll have to ride in the back of the bus"

Re-posting this out of context quote daily, still doesn't make republicans a race of people.

DC said: "dominated by people who believe in magical thinking."

Examples:
trickle down (also know as a rushing torrent to the top)
The market will regulate it self
Corporations are people
Unions are not (our) people
The president, CEO and Owner of Bain didn't have anything to do with the company?
All wealthy people are job creators. (regardless of actual record)
Everybody has offshore accounts, don't they?
"Deficits don't (didn't) matter"

"The ONLY party that shows much effort at paying off our 16 trillion in debt is the Republican party."

Sorry, but I have yet to see "much effort at paying off our 16 trillion in debt"

Both parties have been complicit in raising the deficits to these levels.

The medicare drug plan was the largest entitlement program in decades. And it was championed by the GOP. Care to name the last GOP president that cut spending?

The GOP likes to talk about cutting while they are not in power, but when they get to run the show, they are no different than the dems

Until people on the Left AND the Right realize that there is not much difference in the 2 sides, nothing will change.

How ironic that so many blame so much of our ills on the other side and turning a blind eye to their parties contribution.

I know, down deep, people are smarter than that.

I can assure you that if Romney wins and the GOP controlled the House and the Senate, we will still have escalating deficits. And the deficit hawks on the right will be in full support of them.

Unfortunately for conservatives their regular representatives on this post are the poster children for the ideological purists who either hate progressives..just because, or are wraped in what they believe is constitutional purity to the point of the nearly complete rejection of modernity.

DC..Rolands point is conservatives don't solve problem, liberals do. Obamacare put 40,000,000 people on health care, prevented exclusions for pre-exsisting conditions etc. etc. Cash for clunkers..spurred a sputtering car sales industry to record sales. Problem..solution. You may not like the solution but it's problem solving while Republicans did "nothing..yes nothing". POTUS with liberal voting record as senator proves nothing about his attempt to solve problems.

Debt..remember the President offered a 4 to 1 spending cut to revenue increase to Republicans and got it rejected.

Modern Conservatism is based upon two all consuming principals. Fear of change, and greed. Most of their talking points are an attempt to find moral justification for those principals. They have not so long ago abandoned any hint of pragmatism for rigid ideology, selling out to the idea that what is mine in mine and what is yours is yours - - unless I can find a way to get yours from you. The conservative view is that if 3 people are in a life raft together, but with only 2 paddles, the one without the paddle must jump out and swim.

Conservatism has changed from the end of the Reagan to now. Its the influence of the religious right that is the main cause.

The right is way too inclined to claim a moral high ground and also insist one size must fit all. The problem with the left is they are too conceptual and think one size fits all.

Neither side solves problems. They both make a half heated attempt to close the barn door after the horse has left.

Roland and Blue,

Well said.

I do tend to still vote Republican. But I have been shocked at some of the stupidity. The mere concept that we would draft Donald Trump as a candidate nearly sent me to the hospital.

The attacks on the president reference his birth certificate and religion took us away from having real debate about more substantive issues.

I like Romney for exactly the reasons so many "conservatives" do not. He is pragmatic. The word pragmatic has become an opprobrium in the modern Republican Party.

Sad.

@lost in DC
"a POTUS who had the MOST liberal voting record as a senator

is nothing more than ideological purity?"

His stimulus was half tax cuts, his healthcare bill was modeled after Romneycare, the model proposed by the Heritage Foundation in the 90s and the repubilcan alternative to hillarycare, he's done nothing on guns, his immigration decision is almost a mirror of the Rubio plan... Obama's been pretty moderate.

@JCS
"The left cannot refute the logic of the right, so it relies on personal attacks"

Says someone who called the left deceitful two sentences prior to this and suggested they were dispensors of propaganda one sentence after this. I'm forced to conclude that you're left leaning then, right?

@1conservative
"The ONLY party that shows much effort at paying off our 16 trillion in debt is the Republican party."

Obama's the one that proposed a 4 trillion dollar deficit reduction plan. Republicans rejected it, settled on something that was about 2 trillion, and are trying to weasel out of the triggered defense cuts. Meanwhile Romney wants even less revenue and more defense spending. He'll have to cut a lot just to pay for his tax cuts and warmongering.

@JCC;

The "right" has no logic to refute.

I suppose Roland is right.

Two of those he refers to quickly reply as if he is a leftist, Obama Democrat. Is there no middle ground for the newly enfranchised far right conservatives? Must moderate Republicans also "take a seat at the back of the bus?

How will the current Utah Republicans ever recruit more membership from our huge group of "Unaffiliated" voters? Whose tent is big enough for the majority of Utahns?

Saying Democrats are the same doesn't take away from the fact that Republicans are too. Isn't that sad.

"I've become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy"--Richard Posner, one the most highly respected conservative judges in America. He also writes widely on economic matters. He is just one of many who have come to the same conclusion.

@ John C. C. 9:10 a.m. July 16, 2012

**How will the current Utah Republicans ever recruit more membership from our huge group of "Unaffiliated" voters? Whose tent is big enough for the majority of Utahns?**

I'll go out on a limb ... most moderate Utah republicans as well as some Utah democrats who are essentially more centrist than anything else IMO would fit nicely into the Libertarian party.

"If I were a European, I would certainly vote conservative..."

Sit tight Roland. We're one election away from European utopia.

Consevatism today is not "conservative" in the traditional sense. It has metastisized into something completely different. Instead of "go slow, don't change unless it works", the new conservative ideology is "no government, no taxes, no regulations, no nothing". The Tea Party is only concerned in having government establish a socially-conservative society and enforcing a "conservative" Christian agenda. There is a lot of greed and selfishness encompassed in the new ideiology with the concept of "I've got mine, too bad for you."

Rather than look at problems and seek solutions, these ideological conservatives set their agenda based upon their own personal desires and wants. They may included some others of like-minded, like-looking being in their favored grouping; they distrust, if not dislike, any multi-ethnic, multi-cultural social variation in their calculations. Apart of having government provide them with the advantages for themselves, they distain any favor given to those they don't like.

The wealthly among them want their wealth to be safe-guarded and guaranteed (the advantages they enjoy maintained for their children and children's children regardless of the lack of opportunity for those outside their circle). "Fairness" is the new blasphemy