[lit-ideas] Re: [Spam] More from a Republican for Kerry...
- From: "Steven G. Cameron" <stevecam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 08:03:26 -0400
**Headed out to relatives (somewhat) near you in Louisburg, KS for
turkey day, next month. Would like to have beaten shrub jr. by then --
enjoy mid-west company and holiday celebrations. Family and politics
will make it interesting...
TC,
/Steve Cameron, NJ
Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi, Oh, and Steve, <g>, I KNOW your wife sent that and really meant
> NEO-CON Republican, right? <g> Those of us who espoused the
> 'pro-small business, fiscal conservativism, anti-big-business, little
> government, etc.' type of Republicanism are a tad different--and give
> thanks every day for such things... (okay okay...we are either the
> Old Republican or the New Democrat <g>)
>
> I will preface this with saying that while I have, in the past,
> allowed myself to enjoy Mother Jones <g>, I have also found it
> definitely in line with a particular partisian point of view. I find
> it very intriguing that they have, in a sense, decided to interview
> these folk. <g> (in other words, just by virtue of the fact that it
> is in Mother Jones I would be unable to use it with certain
> people...<wry look>...no matter WHO they interviewed.)
>
> I think John M ought to resend one of his posts (I reread it again
> today...) The one where he read something in The Nation. It really
> is quite good...
>
> Hopefully heading home soon, Marlena in Missouri
>
>
> http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/10/10_200. html
>
> Conversation with a Conservative: Clyde Prestowitz
>
> In the first of four conversations between Mother Jones and prominent
> conservatives who've become Bush critics, Reagan administration
> veteran Clyde Prestowitz explains that four years of Republican rule
> have put the country on the wrong track.
>
> October 6, 2004
>
> I?m Clyde Prestowitz. I was a counselor to the Secretary of Commerce
> in the first Reagan administration. I?m author of the book "Rogue
> Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions."
> I'm an elder in the Presbyterian church. I'm a conservative, a
> registered Republican, and an economist.
>
> I grew up in a rock-ribbed Republican family. Republicanism kind of
> came in the DNA. In fact, I can remember my father saying that he'd
> vote for a dead horse if it was a Republican.
>
> I've always had a certain idea of the United States. And it was the
> idea of a country that led by example, that was powerful but didn't
> abuse its power, that was rich but caring, and that was leading the
> world into a better place.
>
> Increasingly it seems like the Republican party I knew, that I
> learned about at my father and mother's knees, is leaving and has
> gone in a different direction. If you look at the Bush
> administration, it has given us red ink in our federal budget
> deficits as far as the eye can see. It has given us big government,
> not small government. The federal government is now spending more as
> a percent of our total GDP than any other government. The Patriot Act
> has been a restriction of individual rights. The states have been
> given unfunded mandates from the federal government, which most
> conservatives see as completely abhorrent. And we?re engaged in a war
> in Iraq against a country that didn?t pose a threat to us. We?re
> setting as an objective in that war that we're going to democratize
> not only Iraq but the whole Middle East. This is exactly the kind of
> slaying of dragons, messianic foreign adventure that traditional
> conservatives have always been opposed to. And I'm frustrated by the
> fact that these policies are being sold as conservative.
>
> A lot of people automatically identify 'conservative' with 'good,' so
> if you sell this tax cut as a conservative tax cut, then it must be a
> good tax cut. Well, it's not, and don't confuse the subject by
> calling it conservative.
>
> The neo-conservative, radical conservative opposition to things like
> the Kyoto agreement, or to other measures to protect the environment,
> is frequently based on either a willful ignoring of evidence and
> facts, or a distortion of those. It seems to me that the essence of
> conservatism is not being guided by what you wish was the case, or
> what you hope was the case, but looking at the hard, cold facts. What
> is science telling us? The icebergs are melting. The polar ice caps
> are going away. The glaciers in the mountains are disappearing. Why
> is that happening? What are the facts? And once you?ve looked at the
> facts, then it seems to me that only a fool would not respond in some
> way to protect the environment.
>
> Also, typically, traditional conservatives have a sense of the need
> to support the welfare of the society. Widening gaps between rich and
> poor are things that concern traditional conservatives. The Bush
> administration is not conservative, because on almost every principle
> of traditional conservatism, the Bush administration is someplace
> else.
>
> The administration's use of the word conservative to describe itself
> is Orwellian, because it's exactly the opposite of what the term
> means.
>
> The administration is not conservative, it's radical. But it uses the
> term "conservative" to mask what it truly is.
>
> The notion of going to war on the basis of first strike, on the basis
> of pre-emption, is contrary to American doctrine through generations
> of presidents and generations of conservative Republican presidents.
>
> President Eisenhower, President Nixon, President Ford, President
> Reagan -- all conservative Republicans -- all embraced the notion of
> "no first strike." But now, this administration has turned that
> doctrine on its head to say, "OK, now we're going to go for first
> strike." That's a radical proposition.
>
> I think that we are less safe today than we were three or four years
> ago. And I'll tell you something else: I have recently had
> discussions with several former national security advisors -- people
> who were national security officials in former Republican
> administrations -- who have told me they feel the same way. They fear
> that the administration's policies are further endangering and
> undermining the security of the United States.
>
> I feel very strongly right now that our country is on the wrong track
> domestically. I think it's on the very wrong track internationally.
> As a patriot, as a conservative, as a Republican, it's important to
> try to change it.
>
> This interview was recorded on September 8, 2004, as part of Mother
> Jones? State of the Union series.
>
> _____________________________________________________ Marlena Boggs
> mboggs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Adults Services Specialist 816-836-5200
> Mid-Continent Public Library http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us
>
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