Gautam, you have confused me. On Mon, 16 Feb 2004, you wrote
Many conservatives (myself included) ...
I am confused by what you mean by `conservative'. Most people
describe the current Bush Administration as `conservative' (or at
least, as more conservative than the previous Clinton Administration).
By that criterion, the word `conservative' in US politics means an
Administration that
* sets up a policy of long term government deficits
* declares itself entitled to arrest and hold US citizens
indefinitely, without trial, or other kind of check by another
branch of government
* extends nationalized medical spending
* extends government subsidies
* fails to order the US army to search, at the earliest possible
time, `known' suspected sites containing chemical, biological,
radiological, or nuclear weapons in Iraq. (This is a separate
issue from finding, later, that such weapons cannot be found; the
latter search tells us either that the weapons were never there or
that enemies of the US took them before the US looked for them.)
(Someone in the Nixon adminstration said, famously, `Watch what we do,
not what we say.' I am applying that recommendation here.)
I always thought you were against this kind of `conservative' policy,
but I may be wrong.
Put another way, I thought you would
* favor long run US government budget surpluses,
* favor guarding the rights of US citizens,
* favor individual or insurance company payments for health care
rather than central government payments,
* oppose government subsidies, in general (but perhaps not certain
disguised subsidies, such as those that sometimes result from
patent and copyright law),
* favor searches for dangerous weapons, when that is possible.
Which is it?
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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