Redundant you say?
One irony that was missed on several in attendance at my county GOP convention was that it was held at Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson High School. Jackson of course was a Democrat US Senator from the state of Washington for many years and ran for president in 1976.
I was sitting at a table full of Republicans at our lunch break and I mentioned how funny it was that Republicans were meeting at a high school named for a Democrat. Three of them I was sitting with all said the same thing: "He was really a conservative though."
My heart sank a bit because these delegates and Republican activists have truly forgotten what a conservative is. I asked them, "In what way was Scoop Jackson conservative?" and their reply was again in unison: "He supported the military!" they all said.
That's it? That's all there is to being a Republican anymore is just supporting troops, wearing flag lapel pins and putting a yellow ribbon magnet on your car? That's it?
I asked them what they thought about his protectionist trade policies and his backing of LBJ's "Great Society" legislation. All of them looked at me blankly.
I remember reading in a biography of Barry Goldwater how infuriated the Arizona senator was at how Jackson would make speeches mocking Goldwater for his claims that government intervention made the lives of Americans worse, not better. That's conservative?
Jackson was a warmonger, a trade protectionist, voted to restrict trade to non-market economies, pro entitlement, and pro foreign aid. He represents much of what is wrong with the Bush administration as many of Jackson's acolytes have been involved in the Bush administration including former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
Truth be told that over the years the terms liberal and conservative have come to mean different thing. Now, liberal means socialist and conservative means to conserve your own power. Neither means to protect freedom anymore.
5 comments:
Republican thinking is exactly as you describe it. Salute the flag and support the troops. There is no room for anything else in that shallow pond.
I don't see a flag pin on Ronald's lapel. Commie.
Tracy, you forgot that Scoop also voted to send Japanese-Americans to concentration camps.
On the plus side, at least if you're from Washington, he was the master of pork and earmarks.
If he were in charge today, you can bet that the EU would not be messing with Microsoft or Boeing. Maybe he'd vote to lock up French-Americans.
you hit it,tracy.
much of the speaking and posturing in the GOP today are neocons, scoop-type democrats who have taken over the party after losing their own.
i'm partly at fault. and as 80's/90's activist for the GOP, we welcomed these defense hawk social conservatives who swelled the ranks and helped win elections.
So, today's Neo-con was yesterday's Democrat? Scary stuff. I haven't seen it so clearly since the last Ron Paul speech I heard.
Tracy, just so you know, I've changed my name upon closing my blog. I felt that I outgrew the "little" part of the name, so now I've taken the name by which Cicero's friends called him (his middle name Tullius abbreviated).
Sorry I haven't got a relevant comment.
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