Comments on: Are we looking at a redefinition of “conservative”? http://sorendayton.com/2007/06/01/are-we-looking-at-a-redefinition-of-conservative/ Merely an aggregation of a dispersed life online Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:08:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Patrick Ruffini :: Salam, Douthat, and the Movement http://sorendayton.com/2007/06/01/are-we-looking-at-a-redefinition-of-conservative/comment-page-1/#comment-1697 Patrick Ruffini :: Salam, Douthat, and the Movement Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:31:56 +0000 http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/06/01/are-we-looking-at-a-redefinition-of-conservative/#comment-1697 [...] UPDATE: Soren Dayton chimes in again with an excellent post on redefinition. It’s an interesting history lesson. It was no accident that JFK was the one championing tax cuts. Indeed, most conservatives opposed them. (Barry Goldwater voted no.) We were obsessed with deficits first, as a way of stopping new government entitlements. [...] [...] UPDATE: Soren Dayton chimes in again with an excellent post on redefinition. It’s an interesting history lesson. It was no accident that JFK was the one championing tax cuts. Indeed, most conservatives opposed them. (Barry Goldwater voted no.) We were obsessed with deficits first, as a way of stopping new government entitlements. [...]

]]> By: neil http://sorendayton.com/2007/06/01/are-we-looking-at-a-redefinition-of-conservative/comment-page-1/#comment-1696 neil Sun, 03 Jun 2007 14:48:28 +0000 http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/06/01/are-we-looking-at-a-redefinition-of-conservative/#comment-1696 <i>Bush tried to redefine "conservativism" as applied to education from "small government" (ie, abolish the federal Department of Education) to "accountability."</i> Sorry if this is unwelcome, but you gotta be kidding. Bush's administration has gutted federal recordkeeping, filled government agencies with incompetent cronies, promoted ideology above competence in everything from the military to the Department of Justice, blamed underlings for the decisions of superiors every time the latter come into question. The small government shoe fits better, though that's not saying much. There are <i>some</i> parts of the government he wants to cut, but none where he values accountability. And this is not a liberal critique -- I agree that this issue doesn't lie on the left-right axis. To connect this with the actual topic of discussion, one big difference that I see between the netroots and the official sphere of Democratic politicking is that the netroots care a lot more about issues like this, while the Democrats would prefer not to make too big of a deal out of it, lest they invite too much scrutiny whenever they get a chance to play the same game. Bush tried to redefine “conservativism” as applied to education from “small government” (ie, abolish the federal Department of Education) to “accountability.”

Sorry if this is unwelcome, but you gotta be kidding. Bush’s administration has gutted federal recordkeeping, filled government agencies with incompetent cronies, promoted ideology above competence in everything from the military to the Department of Justice, blamed underlings for the decisions of superiors every time the latter come into question.

The small government shoe fits better, though that’s not saying much. There are some parts of the government he wants to cut, but none where he values accountability.

And this is not a liberal critique — I agree that this issue doesn’t lie on the left-right axis. To connect this with the actual topic of discussion, one big difference that I see between the netroots and the official sphere of Democratic politicking is that the netroots care a lot more about issues like this, while the Democrats would prefer not to make too big of a deal out of it, lest they invite too much scrutiny whenever they get a chance to play the same game.

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