It was William F Buckley that was my early model of conservatism, or better yet, the TRADITIONAL "liberal" model -- those that believed in the diversity that matters, the diversity of thought. Those that were willing to understand a broad range of ideas, discuss them reasonably, and held up "liberty of the individual" as the core value to be esteemed (thus "liberals"). Their name was stolen by the totalitarian statist left, and they never really fought. Maybe the problem started there.
I never saw WFB get flustered, but I did see him get VERY direct -- and I saw many "false modern liberal" statist, socialist, totalitarian guests decompose into gibbering fools in the face of the WFB verbal jousts on "Firing Line". WFB knew what he was about -- as did Reagan.
Now, the "Scribes and Pharisees" seem to have taken over.
I do like that they said "alleged principles", what might those be? Smaller government? I've seen no evidence of that since Newt. Support for their own oath to the Constitution? If one cared a fig for the Constitution, would not articles of impeachment been introduced to the Senate over the BO "encyclicals" in immigration? Certainly they would have been voted down, but they should have shown up! Why bother with foolish oaths if they can be broken without result?
Burn it down. Scorch the earth. Blow it up. If the GOP realigns itself behind Donald Trump and surrenders its alleged principles for a fleeting stab at power, it will almost certainly be blown up—by movement conservatives.
"Movement conservatives" -- constipation comes to mind. The Republican party has held both houses of congress since the start of '15, what "movement" has there been on any issue? Today is the one year anniversary of the failure to override the Keystone veto. On the big issue of the budget, the R congress handed BO unlimited debt authority and thereby unlimited spending authority so they didn't have to "shut down the government" or even fight about it!
There is still time to root for a brokered convention, where, with any luck, the GOP will pull off some highly undemocratic mischief and deny Trump and his many irrational supporters the nomination.I would still MUCH prefer Cruz, but the same establishment that is now maligning Trump as the devil incarnate was saying they PREFERRED him to Ctuz as late as January 16! ... Because Cruz actually stood for something (which they hated) and they believed that Trump was a "player" (read, they could keep the corruption with Trump!)
I could go on -- the fact that the Republican Establishment has lost it's soul and has NO PRINCIPLES seems VERY clear. They would MUCH rather hand power to Hildebeast who DOES have both "principles and a plan" -- completely destroy the remaining tatters of the US and replace it with a totalitarian socialist state ala Saul Alinsky whose book she wrote her masters paper on!
For me though, the real bottom line is guys like Jonah Goldberg -- who I see as the heir to NRO mistakenly thinking that in going after Trump they are somehow repeating WFB's purging of the John Birch Society from the Republican party. Huh? Trump is populist chameleon using the husk of the Republican Party for whatever the hell his game is -- which I'm pretty sure that even HE doesn't know!
I thought it was only the left that did "loyalty oaths" -- you had to sign off on "abortion, gay "marriage", global warming, faking you were taxing the rich but killing the middle middle class, open borders, political correctness, no jail sentences for blacks, ... etc" ... AND you had to sign off on ALL of it ALL the time, or you were "no longer a member of The Party in good standing", and therefore they could go after you like Bill Cosby!
But **NO**, now you are supposed to be swearing on a stack of National Reviews that you will NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES vote for TRUMP!!! Sorry, no loyalty to the constipation version of "conservatism" for me!!
I am a proud TRADITIONAL Liberal in the Hayek sense! My only loyalty oath is to Jesus Christ -- all others make their case. As far as the new right wing version of the Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers go, they are not making a case that resonates with me at all!
I really don't think I've changed -- I'm still smaller government, strong Constitution, strong defense, strong moral values, BUT PRAGMATIC. I find cutting off your nose to spite your face to ALWAYS be a BAD IDEA.
It appears that a lot of the "conservatives" and "establishment Republicans" have lost sight of that maxim.
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