_http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-co nservatism.asp_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp) The Decline and Fall of American Conservatism C. Bradley Thompson, The Objective Standard, Fall 2006 In 1994, American voters elected Republican majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in 40 years. This ascent to power gave Newt Gingrich and his colleagues the opportunity to launch their “ Republican Revolution” with its signature “Contract with America” platform. The election was said to mark the end of an era — the era of big government liberalism that had dominated American political life since the New Deal [in the 1930s]. After struggling for almost half a century to gain political power, the conservative movement finally seemed to have reached the political promised land. In theory, the “Republican Revolution” proposed to “re-limit” the powers of the federal government and to restore some of the basic principles and institutions of free-market economy. The preamble to the “Contract with America” pledged to the American people that the GOP would put an end to “government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money.” _1_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-cons ervatism.asp#_edn1#_edn1) The political goals of the Gingrich “ revolutionaries” … did promise to begin some necessary reforms. As a rule, the Gingrich Congress preferred less to more government controls. In practice, the Republicans began to whittle away at the welfare state. Their first post-election budget proposed to eliminate three cabinet agencies (the Departments of Commerce, Education, and Energy) and more than 200 federal programs. Within a year, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had reduced federal spending by almost $14 billion. _2_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp#_edn2#_e dn2) Such early successes led even Bill Clinton to declare in his 1996 State of the Union address that the “era of big government is over.” _3_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservat ism.asp#_edn3#_edn3) A Republican Congress passed and Clinton signed far-reaching welfare reform legislation that promised to end “welfare as we know it.” _4_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp#_edn4#_edn4) By the end of the 1990s, … advocates of limited government faced an historic opportunity to begin the process of dismantling the welfare state and deregulating the economy. So how goes the Republican Revolution twelve years later? What is the state of the American political Right in 2006? … For the first time since before the New Deal, the Republican Party controls all three branches of the federal government. There is a Republican in the White House surrounded by conservatives; Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Senate; and seven out of nine justices on the Supreme Court are appointees of Republican presidents. Republican grand strategist Karl Rove and several conservative pundits say that prospects look good for the GOP to become America’s “permanent majority.” It is not just Republicans but conservative Republicans who are driving this train. As William Rusher, co-founder of the modern conservative movement, reports, the “conservative movement has come to dominate the Republican Party totally.” _5_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp#_edn5#_edn5) In other words, the Republican Party has finally purged itself of the moderate, non-ideological, country-club, Rockefeller Republicans that once dominated the party in the 1950s and ’60s. The conservative moment — the moment when conservative Republicans become America’s ruling class — has arrived. For over 40 years, ever since the Goldwater election debacle in 1964, conservatives have methodically pursued ideological control over the GOP. Now that they do control the Republican Party and all three branches of the federal government, what exactly have conservatives bequeathed to America? Here are some hard facts. Government spending has increased faster under George Bush and his Republican Congress than it did under Bill Clinton, and more people work for the federal government today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. During Bush’s first term, total government spending skyrocketed from $1.86 trillion to $2.48 trillion, an increase of 33 percent (almost $23,000 per household, the highest level since World War II). The federal budget grew by $616.4 billion during Bush’s first term in office. If post 9/11 defense spending is taken off the table, domestic spending has ballooned by 23 percent since Bush took office. When Bill Clinton left office in 2000, federal spending equaled 18.5 percent of the gross domestic product, but by the end of the first Bush administration, government outlays had increased to 20.3 percent of the GDP. The annualized growth rate of non-defense and non-homeland-security outlays has more than doubled from 2.1 percent under Clinton to 4.8 percent under Bush. _6_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conserva tism.asp#_edn6#_edn6) Increased spending inevitably means increased taxes. … Americans actually pay more in taxes today than they did during Bill Clinton’s last year in office. The 2006 annual report from Americans for Tax Reform, titled “Cost of Government Day,” sums up rather nicely the intrusive role played by Republican government in the lives of ordinary Americans. The report says that Americans had to work 86.5 days just to pay their federal taxes, as compared to 78.5 days in 2000 under Bill Clinton. In other words, the average American has worked 10.2 percent more for the federal government under George Bush than under Bill Clinton. When state and local taxes (controlled in the majority of places by Republicans) are added to federal taxes, Americans worked for the government eight hours a day, five days a week, from January 1 until July 12, meaning they worked full-time for the government for more than half the year. As Tom Feeney, a congressional Republican put it: “I remember growing up and reading in some school textbooks that if more than half your paycheck went to the government, then you were living in a socialist society.” _7_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp#_edn7#_edn7) ... Two generations ago, conservatives denounced the growth of government and called for a revolution to roll back the Leviathan State created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1994, conservatives, with their Republican Revolution, rode into power on … a platform of limited government. Yet today, the conservative intellectual movement and the Bush administration are engaged in ...a revolution for big-government conservatism. What happened to the idea of limited-government conservatism? Have the conservatives been corrupted by power, or is there something in their basic philosophy that has led them to embrace big government? To answer these questions … we must examine the various ideologies that now dominate it. To set some context, however, let us first recall the basic ideals … associated with Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, which, in turn, point to the principles of America’s Founding Fathers. In The Conscience of a Conservative, regarded by many as the political Talmud of conservatism, Goldwater explicated the principles of conservative government. He wrote that the “ancient and tested truths that guided our Republic through its early days will do equally well for us.” … He defined the Founders ’ “proven philosophy” …: “The legitimate functions of government are actually conducive to freedom. Maintaining internal order, keeping foreign foes at bay, administering justice, removing obstacles to the free interchange of goods —the exercise of these powers makes it possible for men to follow their chosen pursuits with maximum freedom.” _8_ (http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp#_edn8#_edn8) … the ideal that animated the American Founding. As Thomas Jefferson eloquently summarized in his First Inaugural address: “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” [See URL, leads to “capitalism is the only social system that recognizes each individual...”]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
