[lit-ideas] More from a Republican for Kerry...
- From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 17:52:15 -0400
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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