Republicans may not be liberal but they aren’t conservative, either

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Written By Bob Strodtbeck

In spite of campaign claims to the contrary, there is no conservative party contending for power in America.

Whereas Republicans swept to congressional majorities 1994 with promises of balanced budgets, reduced regulatory burdens, deconstructed bureaucratic behemoths, and fewer foreign entanglements, the reality of their public service has brought bigger deficits, greater intrusion, larger agencies and an empirical over stretch of military assignments around the world.

Bringing notice to this record of Republican betrayal of conservatism inspires a litany of responses by Republican loyalists. Talk radio aficionados dismiss anyone who sees an inconsistency of GOP practices with conservative principles as nothing more than a brainwashed lackey of the liberal media. Some Christian conservatives consider the exposure of the GOP’s “big government conservatism” as akin to heresy–after all, the Republicans are pro-life and support the amendment to ban same-sex marriage (even though they employ the “big tent” to win the support of pro-choice and gay rights advocates). Speak of how the Republican government has become chummier with international corporatism and the 40,000 lobbyists that represent it and the economic conservatives throw about terms like anti-capitalist, socialist and communist.

With such politically myopic boosters providing public support the GOP has presided over a decided movement to centralization of power during its decade as the majority party in Washington. There have been no government agencies eliminated–in fact the Department of Education which has been targeted by the GOP for elimination since the Reagan Administration–is now the centerpiece of the party’s domestic agenda. The War Against International Terrorism has even won plaudits from conservative voters in spite of the license it has allowed government to monitor our thoughts through the Internet, our travel through mass transit, and our business transactions through electronic transfers.

Whereas Republicans once questioned the social and economic consequences of liberal Democrat nanny state programs, they have supplanted those schemes with “privatization” programs that are more costly, authoritarian, and contribute to centralization of political and economic power.

America’s occupation of Iraq provides ample evidence for this claim. There have been reports that “private contractors” have been involved in combat activities, intelligence gathering, and even some of the prison abuse scandals. These “contractors” no doubt earn hefty sums for their services. On the other hand, according to a recent National Public Radio report, the contracted food and transportation services for the military are being provided by third world laborers at $1,000 per month per worker. In countries such as Burma, where these workers are being found, the average monthly income is $60.

Expanding the power of the federal government and providing legal and policy preferences to corporate entities is a huge departure from the principles that birthed the postwar conservative movement. Establishing private property and local business vitality was the focus of conservative economic goals, not allowing industrial access to a global labor market through free trade. Restoring constitutional limits and the balance of powers–including preserving the influence of state legislatures over the conduct of Washington–dominated the conservative governing agenda, rather than allowing the power to become centralized within the presidency as it is being done now.

Consider for a moment that the country is just three weeks away from elections for 435 congressmen, 33 senators, countless local and state officials, but there seems to be very few political ads by the two parties about anything but the presidential race. Spending on the presidential race passed $1 billion in August. Very few non presidential candidates have had the revenues to advertise their races at this time, however. This fact seems to suggest that the two party political system is pursuing an agenda to centralize power that has become more aggressive with the GOP in control of the nation’s capital.

All of these changes to the relationships between citizens and their government have come since the dramatic switch of majority status in Congress from Democrats to Republicans in 1994. Although the direction the Republicans are taking the government is not necessarily liberal, it certainly isn’t conservative, either.

Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”

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